The Vampire Diaries
by M14.99
Summary: Elena and Jeremy have a younger sister too. Her name is Ivy and she's a year younger than Jeremy, she was adopted by their parents like Elena. What happens when the Salvatore's come to town? How will things change with another Gilbert in the mix? And how will Ivy's past come back to change her? Rated M because I'm paranoid.
1. Pilot

"Ivy! Wake up!"

I groan and cover my head with my pillow, not wanting to get out of bed. I roll onto my side and ignore Elena, preferring to go to sleep rather than go to school. I feel the covers get yanked away so I open my eyes to the scowling face of my very annoyed sister.

"You're going to be late." Elena says, exasperated. I turn away from her.

"What do you care? This is the first time you showed any interest in a while." I mumble, turning to look at Elena. There's a flash of hurt on Elena's face before it quickly turns back into her emotionless façade. She looks out my window.

"It's easier this way." Elena whispers, her mind far away from here. I reach out and grab her hand, gently squeezing it.

"Not for us." I say, jerking my head in the direction of our brother's bedroom. Elena looks out into the hall and bites her lip. She sits there for a moment, consumed by her own thoughts, but then seems to figure it out and gets up.

"See you downstairs in five." Elena says, not looking at me, as if we never had this conversation. I scowl and when she doesn't answer, Elena takes it as a yes and walks away. Finally, I get up, because I know I'll be made to go to school whether I want to or not, so I'd rather start school wearing clothes and not pajamas.

I look towards Jeremy's room and sigh.

"Are you going?" I ask him. He looks up at me, glaring because I didn't knock. I roll my eyes. "Get over it." He turns away from me and grunts.

"Screw off." He hisses. "And get out of my room." I feel tears threaten to spill over. I hastily wipe them away, not wanting to show him how much his bitterness hurts. He looks at me and his expression softens, the way that it only does for me, and he gives me a hug.

"Fine. I'll go." He says, smiling apologetically. I smile back.

"Great." I say. "You won't leave me, right?" I look at Jeremy with pleading eyes, no longer asking about school. Jeremy understands this and smiles.

"Don't worry. I won't leave you guys."

* * *

Jeremy and I are in the same grade, but he's a couple months older, and he never lets me forget that fact. Jeremy's the biological son of our parents, he was born October 13th, 1994 and I was born in December 21st, 1994. I always thought it was quite crazy for them to adopt only a month after having a biological child, but they wanted to adopt and that was the chance for them to do so. I'm not complaining of course.

Jeremy and I are pretty close. After the death of our parents, we grew even closer, since Elena became distant. I couldn't lose both my siblings, so I turned to Jeremy, and he had no choice but to hold it together for me and I held it together for him. Jeremy and I helped each other deal with the grief from not only losing our parents, but our sister as well.

However, Jeremy can hold a very long grudge, and he's not too happy that Elena turned her back on us. I don't blame Elena for doing that, she felt like she was all alone with her pain. And of course, some of her pain we couldn't understand, since Elena was the only one in the car when it went over. So I don't blame Elena for detaching herself, she felt like the death was her fault.

But it still hurt. A lot. And although Jeremy would never admit it, he was hurt by the action as well.

So now Jeremy refuses to forgive Elena. She's trying, but it'll take a lot more to get him to forgive her. For me, I'm just happy that we have her back. The only problem is, now I feel that I have to choose between Elena and Jeremy. Jeremy's harsh and cruel towards me when it looks like I'm forgiving Elena, because he fears that he'll lose me too. But if I don't forgive Elena, she becomes more guilty and sad and pushes us away even more. Drifting siblings, plus losing my parents, plus starting high school, means life is quite the ride right now.

I shake myself out of my thoughts and start to get dressed. When I'm done, I look in the mirror at my outfit. Satisfied, I grab my backpack and run down the stairs grabbing an apple on the way out.

"Wait hold on!" My Aunt Jenna calls. I pop my head into the kitchen.

"Yeah?" I ask, and then take a bite out of my apple.

"What's for lunch?" Jenna asks, staring at me sternly. I smile at her attempt to sound parental. This thought quickly turns to my parents and my smile disappears, replaced with a sad expression. Aunt Jenna looks at me worriedly. "What's wrong?" I plaster on a fake smile.

"Nothing." I say. I lift up my wallet. "Don't worry, I have lunch money." With that I run off in the middle of Jenna's anxious goodbye.

I run out to my sister's waiting car. Jeremy isn't out yet so the front seat is open for me to take. I hoot at my good fortune and jump into the seat. Elena smiles at me cautiously and I beam back at her. This seems to raise Elena's spirits because her smile gets more confident and genuine.

"So, are you excited for grade ten?" She asks.

"Not really." I answer, uninterested. Elena laughs.

"Yeah I guess that makes sense." She muses, looking at me. She looks down at the clock and curses. "He's gonna make us late! Ivy, can you go in and get him?"

"You do it. He'll take my seat if I do." I whine. Elena frowns; her mouth forms a grim line.

"He doesn't even interact with me." She says, looking out the window sadly. "He hasn't in a while." I frown back at her.

"Neither have you." I whisper. I look at Elena warily, not wanting to make her mood shift too much. There's a moment of anger in Elena's expression before it goes back to sadness.

"I know and I'm sorry, I really truly am. I want to try to fix this." Elena says, looking at me solemnly, as if she needs to convince me of her words, get me to trust her again.

I shake my head. "It's not me you have to be convincing."

Elena just looks back out the window, not acknowledging me. I sigh, only hoping that Elena took my advice to heart and that she works her ass off to repay him.

Finally, Jeremy gets into the car. I look at Elena, expecting her to mention how late he is, but she remains aloof, not talking to him or even looking his way. I scowl and turn away from her, instead turning toward my brother.

"You're late." I say, disappointed. Jeremy just shrugs, annoyed simply from being in the car with Elena. I scowl at him and look away sadly.

I turn back to face the front and the three of us sit in an uncomfortable silence. Suddenly, Elena clears her throat.

"So, are you guys excited for school?" She asks us. She looks at him awkwardly through the rear view mirror. I look away uncomfortably, not wanting to choose between Elena and Jeremy.

"What do you care? You didn't even look at me when I got in the car." Jeremy says harshly. Elena bites her lip, tears pooling in her eyes. She angrily wipes them away, her breathing hard and fuming.

I look to see if Jeremy saw the tears, but he's too busy scowling out the window. I poke him hard in the knee and give him a look. Give her a chance, I mouth to him. Jeremy just shakes his head and scowls, now angry at me for even thinking that Elena deserves it.

"I do care." Elena says calmly and softly. She tries to keep her voice from shaking too much, but I notice and seeing from Jeremy's guilty expression, he does too.

"I'm not that excited. School's school so there's not much to look forward to." Jeremy answers grudgingly. Elena smiles at Jeremy but he looks out his window, either not noticing her smile or choosing to ignore it. I guess the latter based on the eye roll he gave her after her smile. Thank god, Elena didn't notice the eye roll, meaning we won't have to deal with another break down.

Eventually, we pull into Bonnie's driveway and she opens her door and runs out to the car. I whistle at her.

"Wow Bon, your outfit's on point!" I say, giving her the thumbs up. Jeremy looks at Bonnie and gives her the once over, smirking, causing Bonnie to nearly faint.

"Thank you." She says, her voice surprisingly steady. She gives me a warning glance and her eyes flit over to Jeremy and back at me. I smirk at her and mime myself zipping my lips closed and throwing out the key. I then turn to Elena.

"Your outfit's pretty hot too, Lena!" I say, using the nickname I gave her when I was young. I hadn't called her that since the day dad and mum died. My eyes open in shock when I realize what I said, and I look at Jeremy worriedly. He has his jaw clenched and he's eyeing me with a look of betrayal. I duck my head and look out the window.

We sit in silence for the rest of the car ride, the atmosphere so tense you could cut it with a knife. Before it becomes too tight and claustrophobic, we pull into the school parking lot. Jeremy opens the door and bolts out of the car before Elena could even say goodbye. Caroline, Bonnie, Elena and I get out after him. Elena watches Jeremy retreat and the hurt on her face is flashing like a strobe light, causing me to cringe every time I look at her.

I reach out to touch her. "Elena, are you-"

"Don't touch me. Just leave me alone." She snaps, turning away from my outstretched hand. She grabs her backpack, stalking towards the school with an expression of barely contained anger.

Bonnie looks at me and turns to follow Elena, because poor little Elena's too fragile to deal with her brother's harsh behaviour on her own. I scoff at how hypocritical my sister is. She's getting all upset from how cold Jeremy is, when she ignored us for a good 5 or 6 months.

Her harsh words circle in my head and I bite my lip and look down at my hands, tears pooling in the corner of my eyes. I'm watching her leave when Caroline approaches with a disgusted look on her face. I wipe the tears, but smile at her.

"Elena being a bitch?" She asks, tone condescending. I frown at her. Just because Elena isn't my favourite person at the moment, doesn't mean I'll tolerate her former friend, and possibly a friend of Elena's still; say harsh things about my sister behind her back.

"Just because you guys aren't on the best terms, doesn't mean I like when you insult her," I respond, before turning to look at her. Caroline has the decency to look ashamed.

"Jeez, I run my mouth, don't I?" Caroline sighs, and I shrug. "And yes, even if she pushed me away, and yeah, it hurt, I still care about her," Caroline looks at me sincerely. "And I know how much it must have hurt you and Jeremy when she pushed you guys away if it hurt me as much as it did." She sighs.

"I'm sorry she hurt you," I replied. "And yes, it hurt me as well." Caroline gives my hand a squeeze.

"It's not up to you to apologize," Caroline said. "But she really does love you guys." She assures me, and I look up at the sky.

"People who love you aren't supposed to hurt you. There not supposed to leave you behind when you need them the most." I say angrily.

"Sometimes there are bumps in life, and people forget that they love you. This is just one of those times. But that's what love's like." Caroline says haltingly.

"That's stupid, and not an excuse." I whisper, looking towards Elena, who's standing near the doors, talking to Bonnie.

I think of all the times Elena retreated to her room for weeks on end, only talking to us when she was angry at us. And the times when Jeremy got so furious from the grief that he became aggressive, both verbally and physically. How is that love?

"You have to take the good with the bad, Ivy. Love's being with someone through the bad parts so you can be with them for the good." Caroline wraps me in a hug.

"Thanks Care." I whisper, a slight smile on my face. She nods and looks at the school nervously. "You can go to class if you don't want to be late. I'm just going to stay here for a bit." Caroline smiles at me. I open my mouth anxiously but she cuts me off.

"Don't worry, I won't tell her." She says. I give her a grim smile back. "But that doesn't mean I won't be angry at her for the rest of the day." I nod and she smiles at me again, giving my hand a little squeeze. "Stay safe." I roll my eyes at her.

"From what? It's Mystic Falls." I smirk and Caroline laughs shrugging her shoulders.

"Use your imagination." Caroline smirks. "Maybe there are werewolves" She tilts her head back and howls. "Or vampires." She bares her teeth at me. I laugh at her, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah okay." I laugh, my mood already shifting from sadness to contentment. She smirks at me and walks towards school, running to her class. I look at the door and Elena and Bonnie are gone, probably already at their locker, and I see Caroline walk into the school. After she's out of eyeshot, my smile disappears, replaced by the melancholy that I try to keep inside of me every day.

I close my eyes and lean back against the car, breathing slowly, trying to contain myself. Once I feel like I'm not going to burst into tears, I stand up and walk to the entrance of the school. I make it to class right before the final bell.

* * *

"Ivy!" I hear someone shout and I turn towards them, waving. "Come sit with us!" My friend, Jess, calls. Well, I wouldn't say friend, as she only became my acquaintance when my parents died. It's a pity friendship in all sense. But they're 'friends' so who cares if I don't really really like them? I have Elena, well had. She was once my friend and Bonnie and Caroline are my friends too.

"Oh, did you see the new guy?" My other friend/acquaintance Kara asks, but I shake my head. She wiggles her eyebrows and points behind me. I turn around and see Elena flirting with some guy, who I assume was the person Kara was pointing to.

He has blonde hair with dark eyes and pale skin. He's average height and average build and Elena's smiling at him. An actual smile that has her eyes engaged in the equation as well. I feel a pang in my heart to think that she hasn't smiled like that for her own siblings for at least a year.

"Who is he?" I ask, not taking my curious gaze off of him. At that moment, I see him turn around and his eyes are black, causing fear to race up my spine and my heart to pump wildly. I try to shake it off but the veins around his eyes seem to darken, causing me to shake from fear as well.

Suddenly, a hand grabs my shoulder and I jump. "Jesus, don't scare me like that!"

Caroline smirks at me. "Sorry Ivy." Then she frowns and looks at me seriously. "How are you?"

"Fine." I see her suspicious glance and I rush to continue. "No really. I have decided not to let Elena or Jeremy bring me down with them because of their petty grudge." Caroline smiles warmly at me.

"You go girl." Her gaze drifts over to Elena and the new guy. "Well I'm going to go sit with them." I nod and she waves, walking towards Elena and Bonnie.

Kara grabs my attention then, her expression amazed. "You are so lucky you're friends with Caroline." I raise my eyebrows at her. "Like, her and Elena are like the most popular people in this school."

I shrug. "Elena is my sister you know." Kara rolls her eyes, and gives me a look, like she's the teacher and I'm the slow student.

"Which is even more reason for Caroline or Bonnie to not be your 'friends'-" she uses air quotes when she says friends, "-since, like, it's almost a rule that siblings can't share friends." I fight the urge to roll my eyes, instead sending her a friendly grimace. Before Kara can continue on about how awesome Elena is, I get up and say goodbye. However, before I can get to the door, Elena calls me over. I roll my eyes before I turn around to face her, plastering on a distant smile and walking to her table.

The new kid's sitting with her and he looks at me, wide eyed. I narrow my eyes at him and he averts his tense stare, instead deciding to shoot the wall with his glare.

"Yeah?" I ask. Elena looks out the window, expression unreadable and then looks back at me. I send Caroline a nervous glance, wondering if she told Elena about my breakdown and that's why Elena's acting weird, but Caroline shrugs her shoulders.

"I'm leaving early, skipping fifth. Can you walk home?" She asks me. My glance flits over to Caroline and Bonnie. "They're coming with me, we're skipping." I raise my eyebrows at her disapprovingly, and I see Elena shift uncomfortably. I roll my eyes.

"Yeah whatever."

"Can you let Jer know?" I give Elena a glare, but it softens when I see her pleading expression.

"Fine." I grumble. I walk away during Elena's quiet thank you, but I'm too far to respond.

* * *

I trudge through the rain, head down, and hood up. Grumbling, I curse my stupid siblings. Stupid Elena, for skipping fifth and leaving me to walk home in the rain because she's too cowardly to face Jeremy's anger at her disdain. Stupid Jeremy for first, insulting me when I asked him to walk home with me, and second, deciding to get high with the other druggies instead. Stupid me, for even thinking that they could prove me wrong, that they'll turn out to be nice for once.

I'm wallowing in my self-pity when I see someone approach me. The person walks up to me until I can see them clearly and I narrow my eyes.

"Elena?" I ask, but I instantly realize that this look alike isn't Elena. She's cold and scary and a cruel smile slithers up her face.

"Who, your sister?" The look alike asks. She scoffs, causing me to shift nervously. "No honey. I'm worse." She bends down to look at me and I see the veins around her eyes darken, just like the new kid at school. Startled, I stumble back.

"Who are you?" I ask harshly, surprising myself. I seem to have startled the look alike too, because she looks dazed. Her expression quickly turns mocking however and she sneers.

"My name's Kat." She says, amused. I cock an eyebrow.

"Cat? As in a kitty cat?" I ask, mostly trying to get on her nerves. I don't know, just something about her irks me and I can't help but push her buttons. It works though.

She scowls. "No you imbecile. Kat as in K-A-T."

I nod, pretending to finally understand. "Okay." I look at her quizzically. "Well, what do you want?" I smile at the end, just to make sure she knows I'm not trying to be rude or anything. I just want an answer so I can go.

But the smile she gives me causes my heart to pump fearfully and my instincts to kick in, alerting me that she's dangerous. She locks her eyes on mine and I gasp. The veins around her eyes are dark again and her eyes are red. When she opens her mouth, I see fangs, so I scream. But she quickly puts her hand around my mouth, surprisingly strong, and she keeps me from running.

"You will not scream or move." She says and I feel my body obey her while my mind is yelling at me to run, to scream, to do anything to get away. But I'm not able to listen so I just stand there as she plunges her teeth into my neck.

After what feels like forever, she pulls away, her mouth bloody and eyes red. I struggle against her, trying to pull away, and she looks at me shocked. My curiousity doesn't last long at why that is though, and I continue to struggle. She grabs my chin and forces me to make eye contact with her.

"You will not tell anyone about this." She hisses, and again I feel myself obeying, despite how much my mind contradicts the command.

But before I can really comprehend on what just happened, and who the hell this Kat person is, she disappears into thin air. Touching my neck tenderly, I pull my hand away to see that it's still bleeding. Cursing, I try to stop the bleeding with my hand, to no avail. Running out of options to try and get the blood off my throat, I have only one left and that's to let the rain wash it off. It slaps down onto my raw neck and I wince, a couple of whimpers escape as it hits the open wound. Once the blood has washed down my coat and into the puddles, turning them slightly pink, which succeeded in grossing me out enough that I almost puked, I take some soggy tissue out of my bag and hold it against my neck. I then proceed to walk home.

But life decides to throw me another curveball. As I'm walking past the graveyard, the new kid walks out. He stops and his head snaps up to meet my eyes, expression threatening. I stand still and fight the instinct to run, knowing that if he's anything like Kat, I won't stand a chance. Right away, I know he's like Kat, due to his darkened veins and red eyes. Let's not forget the fangs. Because a vampire isn't complete without their fangs. And yes, I figured out that Kat's a vampire, due to the sucking of my blood incident, and seeing how the new kid has uncanny similarities to Kat, I figured he's one too.

He seems to be fighting his bloodlust because he shuts his eyes quickly, breathing deeply, mouth firmly clenched shut so I can no longer see his fangs. But it doesn't seem like he's too in control, he's like a live wire.

I scowl. "Okay, Vampire. I've had enough of blood sucking today, so if you don't want to be staked, I suggest you move alone." I don't actually have a stake, but I hope he doesn't realize this.

My words seemed to have shocked him. "You know what I am?"

"Yes. And I prefer not to have my blood sucked out of me." I say, surprisingly confident. The adrenaline courses through me, making me continue on with my cocky attitude, like it did with Kat, even though I wouldn't ever talk like this to any normal stranger. Usually, I'm pretty shy, but I guess running into deadly strangers changes that.


	2. Pilot II

Chapter 2

He gapes at me. "You know what I am?" I roll my eyes. He already asked this question.

"Yep." I pop the p. "Ran into your kind just a minute ago." I want to test his limits so I pull the tissue away from my neck, tilting it to the side to show him the bite marks. "As you can probably see."

I feel some blood slowly drip down my neck so I watch the vampire's expression carefully. His eyes are held tightly shut and I can see his muscles quivering, fighting the instinct engrained into his very being to suck me dry. After a few more minutes, he still hasn't snapped, which I'm very pleased to know. So I put the tissue back on my wound.

"Please. I don't want to hurt you." His voice is full of angst and I puzzle over the weird idea of a brooding vampire. I snort.

"You're a strange vampire." I say spontaneously, tilting my head to the side. He opens his eyes to look at me, his face incredulous.

"Oh yeah? Well what does a normal vampire act like?" He challenges me, the angst gone, replaced with a teasing smirk. I pretend to think about it.

"Hmm. More badass. To be honest, you don't have a really threatening vibe to you." He shakes his head.

"Well, you're not a very normal human." He grins. I raise my eyebrows at that.

"Then how should I act?" I humour him. His smirk falters a bit and the sullen look is there again. He turns his eyes to me and they're full of hunger and guilt. It shocks me and I take a step back.

"The way you are now." He says harshly. "Scared. Disgusted. Horrified." He walks towards me, his hungry eyes on my neck. I take another tentative step back. "You should be running away from me, listening to your instincts and getting as far away from me as possible." His eyes are threatening, yet in control. I huff out a breath.

"Okay, enough with the moroseness." I roll my eyes. "You haven't killed me yet so just stop." He turns to shoot me another incredulous look.

"You're really bad at this whole prey-has-to-run-from-predator thing." He frets.

"Well I'm not giving you, the 'predator',-" I use air quotes, "-the pleasure of enjoying the chase." I give him a determined look. "If you do kill me, it will be very boring. So if you want to, just know I don't plan on making it enjoyable for you at all." The vampire gives me a long, hard look; his brows are furrowed and mouth in a taut line. I fidget under his scrutiny and my eyes dart everywhere but on his face.

This distraction allows me to reflect on my actions and my heart jumps when I realize how impulsive and peculiar I acted. My ears burn and my cheeks start to flush at how confident and arrogant I was; it was so unlike how I usually am. The vampire seems to figure out what he needs to know because he looks away finally.

"I never learned your name." He says and his disquieting eyes turn to cut into mine. I startle, but he doesn't seem to notice and I catch myself.

"My name's Ivy. Ivy Gilbert." I say. "What's your name?"

"Oh you're Elena's sister." He realizes. I nod, rolling my eyes slightly. Thankfully, his observation skills aren't on par again. "My name's Stefan. Stefan Salvatore." I smile at him.

"Nice to meet you." I say politely. The adrenaline starts to leave my body and once it allows for my reasonable, introverted personality to kick in, I feel less inclined and more nervous to carry a conversation with him. Plus the fact that he's a very real and terrifying vampire, that has probably been around long enough to kill numerous people, makes me worried.

I feel my heart jump nervously and I breathe deeply to calm it. But with his advanced vampire hearing he notices and seems to figure out pretty quickly why my heart just stuttered like that.

"Is it really?" He asks cynically. I give him a small, soothing smile.

"Well, you're the second vampire I met so far, and you're doing way better than the first." I assure him, patting his arm undoubtedly. "You haven't bitten me so that's a bonus." He laughs.

"I guess it is." He says, smiling. "May I ask who the other vampire was?" I scrunch up my eyebrows. Surprisingly enough, I find no struggle when I try to tell him her name.

"Her name was Kat." I say, nodding my head in confirmation. "Do you know her?"

Stefan thinks about. "No." He finally answers. But he still seems unsure. "No, I don't think so." He gives me another curious look. "She didn't compel you to forget?" It's my turn to give him a confused look.

"Compel me?" I ask him.

"Did she try to force you to forget or not to move or anything like that?" He asks me. I nod swiftly.

"Yeah." I answer. "She told me to stay still. I did for a bit, even though I didn't want to, but I was able to move and scream after she fed from me." Suddenly, I realize why she gave me a weird look. "She seemed pretty confused with that. She also told me not to tell anyone about what happened." Stefan gives me a thoughtful glance.

"But you did." He says slowly. "You told me."

"So does that mean I'm not compelled?" I ask. Stefan nods. He looks me over.

"Do you wear any jewelry?" Stefan asks. I nod, pulling off my bracelet. I hold it up to show him.

"Yeah." I say. "My parents gave me it." Stefan reaches out to touch it, but his fingers begin to burn as soon as they make contact with the chain. He hisses.

"Vervian." He grits out. I tilt my head. "It's an herb that makes compulsion useless on humans. A protection of sorts."

"So I can't be compelled." I say. He nods. "Okay cool." There's a pause in our conversation, and it's silent. It's not an uncomfortable silence and I'm glad for the chance to think. "Are you and Elena friends?" I blurt out, and then blush at my suddenness. Stefan laughs.

"I hope so." Stefan says pensively. "But I'm afraid I'll hurt her. That she'll be disgusted of me if she figures out what I am." I shrug easily.

"She's pretty chill." I answer. "She'll probably freak out at first, but she's pretty understanding." Stefan laughs. I smile at him, but then my expression turns serious. "You treat her well, got it?" Stefan salutes me.

"Yes ma'am." I laugh along with him, but our laughter is interrupted by my ring tone.

"Hello?" I answer my phone.

 _Where are you!?_

I wince at my sister's frantic voice, and hold the phone away from my ear.

"I'm talking to a friend from school." I answer, shooting a glance at Stefan. "The new kid."

 _Well, okay._ _Be home soon._

Elena's voice is calmer, less frantic. I relax. "Yeah sure." Then I hang up. I give an apologetic look at Stefan.

"No problem." Stefan shrugs.

I pull my hand away from my neck. "What should I say about this?" I fret. Stefan bites his lip and looks down at my neck.

"Hickey?" He suggests weakly. I roll my eyes.

"Elena would freak if I told her I have a hickey." I snort.

"Did you know that vampire blood heals?" Stefan asks. I blink. He points to himself. "Hint: I'm a vampire." I stare at him blankly, but I quickly realize what he's implying. I try to stop myself from looking too disgusted, but I don't think I really succeeded, because he flinches. I quickly smile at him.

"That's cool." I enthuse. "Well?" I ask, pointing to my neck.

"Ready?" Stefan says, and smiles, revealing a sharp set of fangs. Nervous shivers race up my spine, but despite my fear, I nod. He bites into his wrist.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I say, then grab his wrist and bring it up to my lips.

* * *

I open my front door and quietly slink up the stairs. I drop my bag in my room and slip into the washroom, avoiding my siblings. Grabbing some paper towel, I try to wash away the left over blood on my neck. The wound has completely healed and leaves no hint of a scar. Satisfied, I flush the bloody paper towel down the toilet. I quickly walk down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Elena and Jenna are sitting at the table.

"Where's Jer?" I ask. Elena looks away and Jenna turns to look at me with a surprised expression.

"I don't know. I thought he was with you." Jenna says. I shake my head.

"Nope." I pipe up. "He stayed at school to get high instead of walking home with me." I smirk as I throw Jeremy under the bus. Take that you selfish asshole.

"He's going to be in big trouble when he comes home." Jenna says, shaking her head in disappointment. After a second she turns back to look at me quizzically. "Walk home? I thought Elena was driving you guys?"

Out of the corner of my eye I see Elena's pleading expression. The look is almost enough to make me cave but I decide to get on my sisters bad side as well. What can I say; they've been acting pretty shitty for a while.

"Nope." I chirp. "She skipped fifth so we had to walk home." With that, I turn and slip back up the stairs to my room, stopping only to look back at Jenna as her disappointment is directed to Elena. Poor, innocent Elena turns to send me a glare from Hell and I smirk smugly at her before slinking back up the stairs again.

I swear I can feel the horns on my head, and a pointy tail swinging behind me. I'm almost surprised to see my backpack in my hands and not a pitchfork. But there's no screams of fear from Jenna so I know that there isn't anything abnormal growing from me. However, I'm pretty sure Elena sees flames swirling in my eyes, horns protruding from my forehead, and a red pitchfork clutched in my hands, with a pointy tail wrapped around it. And Jeremy will see it too, if he figures out I snitched.

I go into my room and open my laptop, waiting as the ancient machine powers up with a faint buzzing in the background. I press the internet icon and quickly type in vervian, finding a local store that sells it. I smile and scrawl the address on a piece of paper, folding it neatly to put in my pocket.

* * *

I sit at the top of the stairs as I hear the conversation between Jenna and Elena.

"Please Jenna." Elena says weakly. "I know this isn't like me and I shouldn't have left Jer and Ivy. I swear I won't do it again."

Jenna sighs. "I want your computer and your phone when you come back from the Grill. For a week."

Elena doesn't protest and hugs Jenna. "Thanks Jenna. I promise I won't do it again." She then comes to the bottom of the stairs and I scramble to my feet and hurry into my room before Hurricane Elena can come my way. I sneak back into the living room and turn on the television once I know she's in her room.

Elena flounces down the stairs. "Bye Jenna! I'm going to meet Bonnie at the grill now." Jenna waves and Elena comes into the living room and towards the front door. I avert my eyes and stare at the T.V, but Elena doesn't say anything, much to my relief. "Oh. Hey."

I turn to look and see Stefan at the door. I raise my eyebrows at him when he looks at me for a moment, and I see his subtle smirk. Rolling my eyes, I turn to Elena and see the happy smile that was on her face when she first talked to Stefan. Despite everything, I can't help but smile because she's happy.

"I was about to knock…." Stefan trails off. Elena flashes her winning smile and turns her brown doe eyes on him. I hide my giggles as I see him flounder in his infatuation. I turn back to the television, keen on missing their flirty antics. My show keeps my interest until Elena comes back through the living room, so I walk to the door and sit down on the stairs to see Stefan at the door.

"Why are you standing out there?" I ask him. He raises his eyebrows and looks around the door frame.

"Because I like the cold." He drawls sarcastically. I roll my eyes then give him a curious look. "I need to be invited in." He elaborates, and then raises his eyebrows at me. I smirk at him.

"What?" I ask innocently.

"I assume I'm not getting an invitation anytime soon." He drawls. I shrug my shoulders delicately.

"Elena will give you one." I pause and smirk at him. "Eventually. When she feels inclined to." I waggle my eyebrows at him and he rolls his eyes.

"We're just friends." He says seriously.

"That's the understatement of the year." I snort. "You fancy her. Come on Stefano, admit it." He raises his eyebrows again.

"Stefano?" He gags. "Really?" I nod firmly.

"Yep. That or Stefani, like the singer, Gwen Stefani." I chirp. "She's my favourite singer." He remains silent and I barely keep my laughter muffled. But his damn vampire hearing seems to one up me because he looks up to send me a death glare. I hesitate for a second, not sure if he's serious, but his teasing grin reassures me.

"If it wasn't for the invitation inside, you wouldn't be so confident." Stefan mock threatens. "Watch your back Gilbert."

I smirk at him and stick my tongue out. "Sucks."

Elena comes back so I retreat up the stairs and sit at the top. She turns to Stefan and smiles at him. He holds his hand out to her.

"Sorry," He says. "Were you going somewhere?"

Elena nods. "Yeah, I'm meeting a friend." She pauses and smiles. "Do you want to come?" Stefan opens his mouth in a subtle smile, and nods, looking at Elena with admirable eyes. They make their way out the door and I give Stefan the thumbs up.

"Woo! Go Stefano!" I cheer; quiet enough so Elena can't hear me. I know he heard me because he turns briefly to meet my eye and smirks. Once they leave, I walk back down the stairs, money heavy in my pocket, and enter the kitchen.

"Hey aunt Jenna." I say, popping my head around the corner. "Can you drive me to-" I look down at my piece of paper. "194, Elgin Street?" She tilts her head in my direction in a delicate nod and I grin. "Thanks! I'll meet you in the car."

I run out to Jenna's car and hop into the front seat, programming the address into her GPS. Jenna comes out after a few minutes and I smile at her, thanking her again. She just smiles kindly at me and gives me a curious look.

"Why didn't you ask Elena for a ride when she left for the grill?" Jenna asks. I scrutinize her, seeing if she's innocently asking or she's fishing for my motive for snitching. I shrug, not really caring if she wants to know why.

"Um…well I assume you already have a good idea why.…" I trail off, shrugging my shoulders noncommittedly again. Jenna rolls her eyes at me.

"Yes. I do." She laughs. "How long are you going to be in there?" I shake my head.

"Not that long." I answer cheerfully. "Be back soon."

I walk into the store, and much to my relief, the vervian is there, a good amount for a cheap price. I bring it up to the cash, and look away awkwardly when the cashier gives me a weird look, hastily paying for my purchase and racing back to the car.

Jenna smiles at me. "What did you buy?" I shrug, the bag of vervian rubbing against my side in my pocket.

"Nothing. They weren't selling what I was looking for." I lie, faking disappointment. Jenna gives my arm a squeeze and smiles.

"Wanna look somewhere else?" She asks. I shake my head.

"No I'm okay." I answer, and fake a yawn. "I'm kind of tired actually."

"Okay. Let's go home."

When we pull into the driveway, I thank Jenna again and walk upstairs, pulling the bag of vervian out of my pocket when I'm safely in my room. I pace, trying to think of a good way to use the vervian, wanting a way to use it discreetly, yet effectively, without it being easy to get out of my system or removed from my body.

The idea pops into my head, and I laugh in anticipation, going into my drawer to get some fabric. I pull it out and start cutting small patches, two layers each, and sew it onto the side of my pants, right where it sits on my lower back. Leaving a side open, I put the vervian into the pouches, sewing the open side closed once it's successfully in. Satisfied with my work, I do it on all my pants and pajamas, so I have a piece of clothing with vervian patches all the time, putting the patches on my shorts and bathing suits as well. Some shirts got vervian too, because I'm paranoid. Everything that I may wear gets a patch.

After a good 2 hours of steady work, I turn my light off and pretend to sleep; waiting for Jenna, Elena and Jer to go to sleep so I can do the next part of my plan without suspicious stares. It's only 8:30 so I still have a while to wait, and head downstairs to boil some water, getting it ready for phase two of my plan. Jenna walks in and looks at me.

"Making tea?" She asks, raising her eyebrows. I glance at the kettle and nod. "Okay. Anyways, I'm going out, we need more food, so text if you need anything. Okay?" I nod again; trying not to smile too wide at the fact that now I can go on with my plan without interruptions. She nods slowly, and then turns to walk out the door, spouting the usual don't-burn-the-house-down warnings.

The kettle finishes boiling and I pour it all into a bucket, dumping some vervian into it. I repeat the process another three times, and use the water to fill up two old water guns that we have, securing the cap tightly, making sure it won't leak, and bringing it up to my closet, hiding it behind the dresses I never wear. Phase two a success.

I waltz down the stairs, with a good amount of vervian left, and I grab the can of coffee grounds. I look at the vervian, which is just a tiny shade lighter than the coffee, and smile victoriously. I grab a mortar and pestle and dump the vervian in, grinding it down until it's at the same consistency as the coffee. Then I dump the ground up vervian in with the coffee and mix it well, insuring that there will be vervian in every scoop. Jeremy, Jenna and Elena all drink coffee, meaning vervian will be in their systems. I put the can back into the cupboard and hop off the counter just as Jeremy and Elena walk back in from the Grill.

I look at the clock and head upstairs, deciding to work on my homework. My bed is too tempting however, so I get an early sleep, the moon shining docilely in through my window.

* * *

Dreamland is weird tonight. That was my first thought when I opened my 'eyes' in my dream, sitting up in my bed. I look around myself in a panic, and breathe deeply to calm down. It's all too realistic and palpable, and I'm way too lucid for this to be a normal dream. I swing my feet to the ground and stand up, spinning so I can look at the faded, greyed version of my bedroom. My body tenses and I stumble when I see my body, my living, breathing body, sleeping in my bed, while I'm staring down at it. I scream. I can't help it, and I watch as my body twitches, as if having a bad dream.

"Woah there. It's okay."

I shriek again, my heart racing, and me- er, my body- starts to whimper, thrashing still, as I spin around to face the person that just spoke.

"What's going on?!" I shout. "Why am I here. What-Where am I!?" The person in front of me holds up her hands in a soothing gesture. She's about my age, maybe a bit older, and her eyes are welcoming.

"I'll explain it to you. But you have to calm down." She cautions. For some reason, I trust her, so I breathe deeply and calm my racing heart, and watch as my body stops moving, sleeping peacefully again. She smiles at me thankfully. "I need your help."

"My help?" I squeak. "But- How- Wha?" I stutter embarrassingly and my cheeks burn then burn even more at the thought that a stranger is seeing me blush. She smiles warmly at me and laughs. "Why am I here? Where is here anyways?"

"You're on the Otherside, as I call it." She says calmly. "It's a place where ghosts go, supernatural ghosts, to be more specific." My mouth opens and closes like a fish, and I blink a few times.

"I'm…." I stutter. "Dead?" I'm shouting hysterically by the end and my body thrashes and whimpers yet again. I breathe to calm myself before she tells me to, and my body stills. "What about my family?" I whisper. The girl smiles reassuringly again and shakes her head. I sigh in relief.

"It's called astral projection." She elaborates. "You're a certain type of witch." She pauses, tilting her head. "Your birth mother's the type of witch you are as well. It's rare, and you're the first one I've seen that has this much power."

"Is that much power-" I pause. "-dangerous?" She nods slowly.

"Sometimes. Spirits can talk to you, like I am right now, if they want to. But not all have the best intentions when they talk either." She says cautiously. I give her a wary glance and take a step away from her. She laughs again. "Don't worry; I don't plan on exploiting you for my evil plans." She smiles wickedly. "Maybe." I falter, but I see the teasing glint in her eyes that counteract her evil smirk and I relax, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah yeah witchy." I smirk. "So…why now? Why can I suddenly do this?" She turns serious.

"Your birth mother had a witch put a spell on you to keep your powers at bay until the right time." She says. She looks thoughtfully at me. "I guess meeting a vampire opened up your supernatural side." I open my mouth again, but she holds her hand up, smirking. "Do you just want me to give you a rundown of everything I know?"

I smile and nod thankfully. "That'd be great."

"Okay, so you already know that you can astral project, meaning your soul leaves your body, and you can interact with the Otherside. Not just the supernatural side, you can interact with the human souls as well, like your mum and dad, if they haven't passed on." She says. I perk up at that. "The easiest way to astral project is by sleeping. Right now, you'll astral project every time you sleep, but eventually you'll be able to control it. As you get more skilled, you can astral project by just closing your eyes." I nod, understanding the information, no matter how overwhelmed I feel. The girl continues, "Also, once you grow stronger, you can interact with the mortal plane when you're on the Otherside. You can move stuff and people can see you, supernatural and human. But if you die and go to the Otherside, you can interact with the mortal world, but only other supernatural beings can see you, not humans. However, if you die, you can come back to life."

I raise my eyebrows. "Really? That doesn't sound very natural." She shakes her head.

"It isn't. That's why it's immoral to do it. You have to kill five withes, vampires, werewolves and humans, each. And the humans and witches have to be innocent beings."

I pale at that and shake my head vehemently. "That's not an option. I'm not killing anyone to come back to life." The girl smiles at me and nods her head in approval.

"I knew you wouldn't. You're too good for that." She compliments, and I blush in embarrassment. "Oh yeah, now that you astral projected for the first time, you will now see the dead, all the time, with no choice. Only supernatural spirits, but you can see the humans as well if they want to see you too. The ghosts can interact with you too, you can physically touch them, and they can touch you too." I nod slowly, letting it sink in. It scares me that a ghost can touch me without my consent, but it's not like I can do anything about it. I can't get rid of them.

"Can they hurt me?" I ask softly. She shakes her head in reassurance.

"No. If you want them gone, you can just make them go away. It's your power." She answers. I sigh in relief.

"Okay. Now, why do you need me?" I ask her. I remember something too. "Oh yeah, what's your name? How old are you? When-" She holds up a hand to stop me again, laughing.

"My name's Adaline. I died when I was 15, in the 1920's, because I saw things." She says. I raise my eyebrows.

"You see things? What-" I stutter. Adaline smiles delicately. I blink, but then it suddenly hits me. "You're a seer?!" She nods. "You have visions." I say, stunned. "So….where do I fit in?" I ask her, puzzled. Adaline smacks a hand to her forehead.

"Damn I forgot!" She curses. "Basically, when you're on the Otherside, spirits can show you their memories and thoughts when you make skin contact with them. If you initiate contact, you can pull out of the memory whenever you want. But if they initiate contact, you cannot pull out, they have to end it. This will never change as you grow stronger." I nod slowly again.

"Well, why do you need me for your visions? I understand you want to show them to me, but why?"

"I have seen things in the future that effect many people, all because of your sister."

I raise my eyebrows again. "Excuse me?"

"Elena is a special type of supernatural." Adaline elaborates. "A doppelgänger. A lot of people want her, and that causes a lot of problems."

"So you want me to see your visions, because I'm alive, so that I can help stop the bad things." I say slowly, and Adaline nods.

"Yes. And because you're easy to contact. Remember how I said that ghosts can interact and touch you when you're awake?" She inquires. I nod "Well, they can also show you memories and thoughts when they touch you when you're awake, but this time you have full power in ending the memories." She looks out the window. "It's almost morning, but I'll see you soon. I'll teach you how to get back into your body now."

She coaches me on how to do it, and I nod, lying down on top of my body like Adaline said, closing my eyes, and thinking of going back into my body, imagining entering it and merging my soul with my physical body.

* * *

I open my eyes and get dressed, dreading the school day. The remnants of my dream still cloud my thoughts, and I shudder at how real it felt, what the girl said. I look fearfully around my room, seeing if there really is an 'Adaline', and I'm relieved when I don't see her.

I walk blearily into the washroom, closing my eyes as I yawn and I stop in front of the sink, splashing water onto my face. When I look up, I swear I can see a figure of someone in the mirror, but I brush it off when I turn and see no one there. But I shudder, remembering my dream. But it was just a dream right? How bad can it be, no matter how real it felt?

"Bye Jenna!" I chirp, hurrying out the door. I see Elena enter her car, cell phone not in her hand, so I turn briskly down the sidewalk, successfully avoiding a tense car ride with unspoken grudges.

* * *

Classes were boring. Going to sleep early was a bust, since I didn't do my homework, and the nightmare, leaving me feeling exhausted as usual. I simply shrug it off and doodle through the class. Finally the lunch bell rings and I race out of my seat. I see Stefan walking down the hallway, and I hesitate for a second, trying to stop my fearful reaction to his tired eyes and his gaunt cheeks, looking like he's starving. Starving vampires are dangerous. I shake it off though, and run up to him.

"Hey Stefano!" I call, and catch up to him in the hallway. "Where's my sister?" He winces at the name, but otherwise answers amiably.

"I'm sitting with her during lunch." He says. I chicken out as we near the cafeteria and wave goodbye, heading to the library instead. Bonnie finds me sitting against the wall and heads over towards me. It takes me a moment to notice her presence, since I have my nose buried in a book, but I look up when a shadow falls over the pages.

"Hey Bon." I smile. She grins at me.

"What ya doing in here?" She asks me, looking around the library, which is virtually empty. I shrug.

"Avoiding Elena." I answer timidly. She raises her eyebrows at me.

"Why?" Bonnie asks. I give her a startled look.

"She hasn't told you yet?" I ask, but already know my answer when Bonnie shakes her head. I giggle. "I kind of snitched on her to Jenna about her skipping yesterday." Bonnie snickers.

"Of course you did." She smirks. I just roll my eyes at her and continue reading. I look up when I notice that she's still sitting beside me. Raising my eyebrows, I look around the room and then back at her.

"Not to be rude, but why're you in here instead of the caf?" I ask her. She holds up a thick book that has a tattered cover and smells of dust. I crinkle my nose as a few dust bunnies fly into my face and I sneeze. "What is it?"

"It's a grimoire. My Grams says I'm a witch or something, and says I'll find my answers in here." She scoffs, rolling her eyes. I pale at the word witch, remembering how 'Adaline' called me a witch. I swallow my apprehension and smirk at Bonnie.

"Sabrina the teenage witch?" I tease. Bonnie rolls her eyes.

"Whatever." She looks down at her watch and stands up. "I have to run, see you later." I wave goodbye and she walks off.

* * *

I lie on my bed and wait for something, anything, to happen.

"You bored?"

I jump when I recognize the voice and turn to see Adaline, in all her glory. My heart thumps nervously and I start to hyperventilate.

"Damn it! You're real!" I curse, rubbing my eyes hard.

She rolls her eyes. "Of course I'm real." She pauses. "Well, as a ghost. I'm dead though." She smirks mockingly and it makes me shiver fearfully, successfully making me creeped out.

"What do you want?" I ask, and I curse myself as the fear leaks into my voice. I see Adaline flinch, and she sends me an apologetic look.

"I don't want to scare you Ivy." She says softly, and her smile is too kind for me to be scared still, so I relax. "I need to show you a vision to keep you safe." I nod and hold my hand out to her. She goes to reach for me, but I pull my hand back.

"Wait. I want to test if you're real." I say and I explain my plan as she stands there patiently, agreeing to humour me and go along with it. We walk downstairs and I find Jeremy sitting at the table. "Jer? I want to ask you something." He looks up and his eyes widen as Adaline pulls me by my arm, making me go from standing stick straight to jerking to the side unnaturally.

"Are you okay!?" He shouts, alarmed, since he wouldn't be able to see the ghost standing beside me. I send Adaline a glance and she smirks smugly at me. "It was like someone pulled you, but- but- no one was there!"

"I don't know Jer." I lie. "I feel fine." He nods and gives in when he convinces himself that he just imagined it. I smile upliftingly at him before kissing him on the cheek and going back upstairs. "Now what did you want to show me?" I ask Adaline and hold my hand out to her. Adaline takes it promptly and I feel my body slump forward as my mind's pulled into Adaline's vision. But I'm not just watching the memory. I'm a part of it, acting out the part that I'll be playing in the situation once it rolls around.

 _"Bonnie!" I shout, panicked. "Emily! One of you, answer!" I find her finally, standing in a little clearing with an amber necklace dangling from her hand, surrounded by flames. Stefan runs up to me, who I didn't see in the shadow of the trees._

 _"Ivy, go home." Stefan says urgently. I hesitate at his serious tone, and stop, standing to watch as the flames go out, and as the dark-haired vampire turns back to Bonnie, and plunges his teeth into her neck._

Adaline lets go of my hand and I sit there shocked, looking at her. "When will this be?" I grit out. She shrugs.

"You'll know." She says simply. I decide then and there that I won't let that vampire bite Bonnie. I see Adaline's eyes glaze over and she smiles, taking my hand and pulling me into another vision.

 _"Bonnie!" I shout, panicked. "Emily! One of you, answer!" I find her finally, standing in a little clearing with an amber necklace dangling from her hand, surrounded by flames. Stefan runs up to me, who I didn't see in the shadow of the trees._

 _"Ivy, go home." Stefan says urgently. I shake my head and continue towards them. I stumble at the sight of the fire, but continue on when I see the vampire standing in front of her, fangs bared as he stares at Bonnie/Emily with hate. I keep walking even as my heart doubles in speed, coming to stand in front of him, blocking Emily/Bonnie. Elena comes running in then, and she stares at me in shock, but I ignore her._

 _"What are you doing?" The vampire snarls. He has dark black hair and blue, blue eyes, which are currently surrounded by red._

 _"Don't you dare attack her, Damon!" I shout. "You don't need that necklace, Katherine isn't in the tomb. She isn't in there!" I push Damon's chest roughly, sending him stumbling back. Snarling, his anger's turned on me, and he holds me by my neck against the tree. His back's to Bonnie now, and I feel relief that he cannot harm her._

 _"What the hell are you talking about." He hisses, voice quiet, yet absolutely terrifying with its malice._

 _"She's alive. She escaped by bribing a guard. It's the truth. If I'm wrong, you can kill me yourself, but I'm right." I choke out. My words are truthful and honest. He sees this because he drops me, but still puts his face inches from mine and growls threateningly. I make eye contact with him, and his evil blue eyes make me shiver._

 _"You better be right." He growls lowly. "Or you will have a slow and painful death."_

 _"I'm right." I say calmly. "You'll see soon enough."_

I come back into reality with a gasp and look at Adaline. I give her my thanks, because I'm glad I can save my friend, and she nods at me, disappearing, going off somewhere in the Otherside. Once she's gone, I fall back onto my bed, suddenly very exhausted from the energy it took to see those visions.

I'm about to close my eyes when I hear my phone buzz and I pick it up to answer. "Hullo?" I say hoarsely.

"Wow you okay? Sounding a little rough." A voice laughs.

"Yeah yeah Caroline." I grumble. "So what's up?"

"Come to the party. I'll pick you up." Caroline demands. I bite my lip and admire my nails.

"That might be a problem." I start. "I don't think Elena's too happy with me."

"Why? What happened?"

I snort. "I snitched. I basically told Jenna that she skipped." Caroline laughs along with me.

"Sounds just like something you'd do." Caroline sneers.

I huff petulantly. "Am I that predictable?" I grumble. Caroline snorts.

"Yeah, kind of." She sniggers and I scowl, glad that she can't see me. "Anyways, you have to come to the party. The hot new kid is going to be there!" I roll my eyes at that.

"Fine. I'll meet you there." I sigh. "Look at you, corrupting the young people of this generation." I smirk.

"You're not so innocent, Ivy Gilbert." Caroline scoffs. "Be there by 8."

"See you then." I say and with that we hang up. I open my door and creep out into the hall, watching as Caroline arrives at our door to pick up Elena. They drive off and I skip down the stairs, wave bye to Jenna, and continue out the door, since Jeremy's already at the party. I throw on a light jacket and slip on my converse, throwing on some mitts for good measure.

I walk down my dark street, towards the party, and I fiddle with my vervian bracelet, hoping that I won't run into any vamps. But really, I should be used to my luck by now, seeing how I'm really the only one in this town that knows there are multiple vampires hanging around. I abruptly halt when a crow flies in front of me, nearly crashing into me.

"Shit!" I curse and turn to look at the bloody devil. It's standing on the sidewalk, looking at me with dark, black eyes. I take a step towards the bird and jab my finger at it. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, you little buggar. I'm far too young to have one, so shoo." I wave my hands at it and it takes off. I turn to stare at it as it flies into the sky.

"Evangeline?" A voice asks, causing me to jump. I turn to look at the person who spoke. He's looking at me with a hopeful expression, and other emotions that I cannot name. I raise my eyebrow, a feat that took me ages to perfect.

"Sorry wrong person." I say, giving him the once over. He has dark black hair, pale skin, and he looks to be about 25. I look him in the eyes and he turns his face away from me, but not before I see veins shiver up his cheeks to his eyes. Vampire. I shake off the fear that's causing my hair to stand on end and my muscles to quiver. But it's not just the fact that he's a vampire that's making me nervous. His voice and face is oddly familiar.

"What's your name?" He asks imploringly, his voice like honey. My eyes narrow even more, and I can't stop the side of my brain that craves adventure from leaping to the grotesquely exciting idea that he's a bad guy and I finally get to use my vampire ass-kicking tricks that I learned from the internet, however obscure they were. But the opportunity doesn't present itself so I answer his question.

"My name's Ivy." I say cautiously. "What's your name?" He looks at me with a weird expression, an almost nostalgic expression. When he doesn't answer I raise my eyebrow, giving him a look. He smirks at me and laughs, like he understands an inside joke and I don't. I huff out petulantly, but quickly return to my friendly smile.

"Nice to meet you Ivy. My name's Damon." He says. Damon, what a familiar name. My mind races back to the vision and my heart jumps when I recognize him. But if I know one thing about vampires, it's that you can't run. They'll only catch you. So I stay put and smile warmly, all while scrutinizing his cordial smirk.

Now it's my turn to give him a thoughtful glance. I bite my lip. "Why did you think I was someone else?" I blurt out and instantly blush, cursing my impulsiveness. His eyes darken and fear causes me to tense again.

"You just look like my sister." He says, glancing down at me. "When she was younger."

"What happened to her?" I ask and again curse my impetuosity. "If you don't mind me asking." I rush out, holding my hands up in a peaceful gesture.

"She….died." He says softly. I give him my condolences and he nods in thanks. "It was a while ago, but I feel like it was only yesterday. She was really special to me, and it nearly killed me when she-" He hesitates, "-died."

"I know the feeling." I answer empathetically. "My parents died four months ago." I look down at my hands, tears forming in my eyes, but I blink them back, refusing to cry in front of a vampire. "At the beginning, I couldn't let go, terrified if I forgot what it sounded like when they were sad, or angry, or happy, that I would be losing them. But then I realized that I can move on with life, while still keeping them in a safe place in my heart, and they won't ever be replaced by someone else. It's hard, but I keep that in mind when I feel sad."

He turns his startling blue eyes onto me, and bends down to stare deep into my eyes. I see his pupils dilate, and I know he's going to try to compel me. "You're going to be happy again. You're going to move on and live the life you deserve, and through it all, you'll remember your parents, without their memory holding you back." He says. "You'll be okay, Ivy." Even though the compulsion didn't work, I believe him, and smile despite my fear of the vampire. "Now, you have to forget about me. Can't have anyone knowing I'm here." He whispers, and then straightens up. One last nostalgic look from Damon, and he disappears, as if he was never there.

* * *

I make it to the party, and I quickly wish I hadn't. Caroline rushes up to me and grabs me by the shoulders.

"Where the hell were you!?" She shouts, shaking me slightly. My teeth rattle and I glare at her.

"Walking here." I say, pushing her off me to stop her shaking. "Why so much drama?"

Caroline gives me a despairing look. "They found Vicki. She's alive, but there was an animal attack. Took a big bite at her neck." I feel the blood drain from my face and my mouth falls open. Vampire.

* * *

I walk into the living room and see Jer, holding a photo of mum and dad. I frown sadly and sit down beside him, putting a gentle hand against my mum's face, then to my dad's. I look up to see Jer watching me, tears slowly trickling down his face. My own tears start to pool and I hug him tightly, his chest shaking as he sobs silently. I'm the only one that Jeremy allows himself to cry in front of in such a manner, and I whisper soothing words into his ear as I cry my own tears. Finally, we pull apart, and out of the corner of my eye I see Jenna, standing there watching with own tears in her eyes. I hold my hand out and she comes up to us, wrapping us in a tight embrace.

"I miss them too." Jenna whispers to us, and although we don't respond, her words are comforting.

* * *

"Would you like to come in?" They're the words that come out of Elena's mouth, allowing Stefan to come into our house. Stefan smiles kindly at her, and comes in, slowly putting one foot into the door, then satisfactorily continuing to come completely in. I watch him from the top of the stairs, and give him a small wave. He smiles back at me, and then follows Elena into the living room so that they can talk. I enter when Elena goes to the washroom, and look sadly at Stefan.

"Was it you?" I ask him. He shakes his head, saying how he drinks animal blood, and doesn't kill humans, but I barely hear him as a rush of relief fogs my head. "Who was it then?" But I already know the answer to my question, because he says it was a male vampire; that much he knows. But I know who it was, and I think from the hidden rage in Stefan's eyes that he does too.

It was Damon.


	3. The Night of the Comet

I wake up and find Elena and Jenna talking in the kitchen, a travel mug of coffee in Elena's hands and a cup of coffee in Jenna's. I sigh in relief that they're having their dose of vervian and make my way into the kitchen, grabbing a cereal bar for breakfast and a premade salad for lunch. I scurry out the door before Elena's done talking to Jenna and give a light wave to them both before heading down the street to school.

"What's on the schedule for today?" Adaline falls into step beside me and turns her head to look at me questioningly. I open my mouth in alarm as I see her walk straight into a tree, but her ghost body goes right through the trunk. I blink a couple of times but quickly recover.

"Nothing really. Just school." I answer, and yawn tiredly. Adaline squeals and jumps excitedly, her blonde hair nearly hitting me in the face, yet her stiff traditional dress barely crinkles. I push against it, barely managing to move the crinoline under the dress. Adaline swats my hand away and continues to twirl around excitedly.

"Oh my god!" She gushes. I raise my eyebrows at the modern expression, but she ignores me. "You're so lucky! I've always wanted to go to school and learn things other than cooking." She rolls her eyes at the end.

"You like school?" I raise my eyebrows incredulously. She just smiles again and claps her hands together.

"I don't know!" She claps her hands. "I've never been, what with my highly conservative father." She rolls her eyes, and plays with the unbending skirt of her dress. "He dressed me in this upon burial." I snort at her uncomfortable-looking dress, but quickly turn it into a cough.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude, but that dress looks horrid." I choke out. Adaline just nods.

"It is. A pain to sit in." She admits, "I much prefer this." She snaps her fingers and replacing her old-fashioned dress is a flapper dress, complete with the headdress on top. I laugh.

"You were a flapper?" She looks at me shocked.

"I was a 15 year old girl who hated the traditional view in the 1920s." She rolls her eyes. "Of course I was a flapper." The duh was implied as she fluffs her hair, which is now in a bob, rather than her regular long locks. I have to say, her blonde hair in a bob is gorgeous and the dark green outfit she has on really compliments her bright green eyes. I tell her as much and she gives me a cordial smirk.

"But you died in the 1920s. How were you a flapper?" Adaline waves me off.

"The late 1920s. I only died because I was driving. I had a vision when I was at the wheel and I crashed." She says it with such nonchalance that I'm worried at first, but she seems okay. "Ironically enough, my vision was about the car accident." I worry again, but she just shrugs and continues on. "So, what're you learning?"

"Um… music, geography, math and tech." I'm still slightly perturbed by her nonchalance.

"Oh my god! That is so cool!" She spins again as she shouts and I raise my eyebrows at the modern phrases. She shrugs in response. "You learn things after watching the humans for so long." I, or we, finally make it to school, and Adaline all but runs into the building, going up to people and listening in on conversations, putting her two cents in here and there. I roll my eyes and make my way to my locker, not bothering to see if Adaline knows I'm gone. If she needs me, she can find me easily.

* * *

I barely manage to keep my eyes open in Geography as the teacher drones on. I look around me and notice that I'm not alone, either the other students are on their phones or literally asleep. Except for Adaline of course. She's at an empty desk, sitting at the edge of the chair, eyes twinkling with fascination as we learn about urbanization and industrialism. She compensates for the lack of enthusiasm in the class by shouting out the answers she knows with an excited squeal.

Her eagerness is tiring me out from just watching and I bang my head down onto the desk.

* * *

"So, what are we learning now?" Adaline asks, alight with more excitement. I roll my eyes.

"We're learning the ever so thrilling algebra." I say and Adaline ooh's and ahh's. A classmate turns to send me a mean smirk.

"Talking to yourself, are we Ivy? I didn't know you were that crazy." He snickers. I smirk at him sardonically while flipping him off.

"Eyes on the board, dickwad." I insult back, and he grumbles at my intolerance of 'a joke'. Oh well. I personally don't think insulting people and then laughing at their sensitivity counts as a joke. Adaline stands up and takes a look at the boy in front of me. She comes back at me, and raises her eyebrows.

"You were rude to that?" She asks with disappointment. "He's so hot." I stare at her.

"Hot or not, personality just kills it." I say, stuttering a bit over the fact that I'm talking to a 95-99 year old ghost about boys. She's old enough to be my grandma. I tell her as much and she rolls her eyes scornfully at me.

"FYI, I died at 15, and haven't aged since. Of course I'm going to act like a teenager." She flips her hair, and then takes a moment to study her nail beds. She seems to remember something, because she looks up slowly, rolling her eyes. "Besides, Stefan is like, 165 years old." I balk and she laughs. "So, why were you rude to that?"

It's my turn to roll my eyes derisively at her. "Because he's a total dick that just wants to get in your pants." I raise my eyebrows teasingly, and flick my hair in a flourish. Adaline laughs.

"Even if he's an ass, I'd still totally let that boy get in my pants." Adaline says easily, biting her lip as she looks longingly at him. I keep in my shocked shriek so the boy in question doesn't call me crazy again. Once I get control of my surprise, seeing her say that while looking so conservative is shocking, I look at her.

"You're incredibly horny for a ghost." I choke out. "How the hell do you survive?" I instantly regret the question once I see the mischievous grin on Adaline's face.

"Ghosts can interact with each other, you know." Adaline purrs with a wink. I blink, mouth hanging open.

Suddenly, math is very interesting and I frantically turn my attention to taking notes, completely ignoring Adaline's laughter as I listen intently to the lesson, shushing her with my hand.

* * *

I head into the kitchen and see Jeremy walking out while Jenna spouts some advice to him that she thinks he hears. I grab his arm. "Is Vicki okay?" He grunts and shrugs roughly.

"Yeah, she's better than she was before." I nod my head, remaining in silence, not knowing what to say. After a while, I turn to him and smirk.

"It's parent teacher night. Jenna's going to be going to your classes." I raise my eyebrow. "How many classes have you actually been to?" I tease, elbowing him in the gut. He snorts.

"I can count them all on one hand." He sneers and walks out, going to visit Vicki no doubt.

I sigh and shake my head, worried about him.

* * *

I walk to the square and Adaline falls into step beside me again.

"So, what's going on down here?" She asks me, looking at the crowd surrounding us excitedly.

"We light candles, like these," I answer her and show her the candle that someone passed out to me. "and watch the comet that comes through." Adaline beams at me and runs off, no doubt taking in the new sights. I continue walking and see Elena. "Hey Lena!"

"Hey." She smiles, but her eyes have a sort of sadness in them, and I look at her worriedly.

"What's wrong?" I ask her carefully. She shrugs delicately and shakes her head.

"Nothing." She's about to close herself off but I give her a look, and she caves. "Well, I guess yes, there's something wrong. I thought Stefan and I were moving along with our relationship, but he lied to me about something big." She pauses, and I start panicking, wondering if she knows he's a vampire. But she continues on, so I keep my mouth shut. "He has a brother, and I didn't even know that. Not just that, he also had a girlfriend before me. Her name was Katherine, and she looked like me and now I'm worried I'm his rebound girl." I recognize the name Katherine from the vision Adaline showed me but I keep my dread down. Instead, I smile reassuringly at my sister and give her hand a tight squeeze.

"Not telling you could've meant something or maybe not. All I know is that the worst thing you could do is not talk to Stefan about it, and make assumptions about him. Talk to him about, calmly, and if he really does care about you, he'll open up to you. Chances are; he just forgot to tell you." Elena gives me a soft smile.

"Thanks Ivy." She gives my hand a squeeze, and then a smirk graces her lips. "You know, you're very good at this, giving people advice. You should become a psychiatrist." She bumps my shoulder and I laugh.

"Well, I learned from the best." I say, and I can't help the sadness from creeping in at the end. Elena notices and this time gives _me_ advice.

"She was the best at it, wasn't she?" Elena praises. I nod forlornly. "Hey, stop with the sadness. Just because they're gone physically, doesn't mean they left us completely. We will keep them alive, by remembering them, and honouring them by doing what's right." Elena pulls me into a hug. "Okay?" I nod. "Well I'm going to find Stefan, figure this mess out." I smile at her reassuringly and she walks away.

* * *

The ceremony/celebration isn't until later, and I'm suddenly very hungry. I weigh my options, either walk home to grab something to eat, or pay for food. The fact that I have no money on me decides for me so I walk home. It's not that far anyways.

I make it home with no problem, I half expected for a vampire to create drama on the way home, but I guess Lady Luck decided to give me a break with the supernatural because it was just me and the moon and stars on the way home. After getting a slice of cold pizza, I walk back to the front door and fling it open.

"Have you seen her?"

I crash into the person speaking as they pop up right in front of me, blocking the exit from the house. I fall back and my arms flail around me. My pizza in my hand nearly falls but I keep it tight in my grip, thankfully. But the relief quickly disappears as I realize that the hard floor is quickly getting closer. Luckily, my brother has faster reflexes and he reaches out to grab my arms.

I manage to compose myself, enough to give Jeremy an angry glare. "You nearly made me fall!"

"I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to do that." He deadpans, not sorry at all. Angrily, I throw my pizza at him, and it hits him in his face before falling pathetically to the floor.

Sadly for me, my first instinct when I get mad at my brother is to throw something at him, and in that moment, my pizza slice was the closest thing to me that I could throw impulsively. He stands there shocked, but not angry; he's used to me throwing things at him. The fact that the pizza didn't hurt him in the slightest makes me even more annoyed and I scowl.

"Asshole." I mutter as I push him away. He stumbles, leaving a gap so I can walk around him. I angrily saunter away from him, but he grabs my wrist. Spitting nails, I turn to face him. "What the he-" I stop mid-curse when I see the pain and utter worry in his eyes. My own expression softens. "What's wrong?"

"They can't find her." He frets. I automatically know who the 'her' is and my own expression turns concerned. "Have you seen her? Please tell me you've seen her." He sees my grim frown and wilts.

"I'm sorry Jer." I say softly. There's a moment where he lets his feelings through, and I watch as a flurry of emotions, fear, worry, compassion, a lot of grief, pass through his face. I reach out to comfort him, but he jerks his arm away, his cold mask of anger and indifference back on.

"Whatever." He snarls, shaking his head slowly. "I don't even know why I care. Forget it."

"Jeremy, wait." I plead as I reach out to grab his arm.

"Just leave Ivy. I don't need you." He shakes my hand off and I can practically see the anger rolling off of him in waves. Jeremy tells me that he doesn't need me or want me, every time he sees that I care for him still. He tells us that he hates us and doesn't want us in his life, and every time he says it, the more it scars my heart, but the less it hurts. At this moment, when he tells me yet again that he doesn't need me in his life, the hurt only lasts for a few seconds. This time, it's replaced by anger. He wants to be mean? Well, I can be mean too.

"Just like you didn't need mum and dad?" I spit out, words intended to hurt. And from the look on my brother's face, they certainly leave a mark. 'Words will never hurt me', yeah right.

He starts to shake, and he spins around, fury and pain rolling off of him in waves. "Fuck you Ivy!" The hurt on his face makes a pang of guilt rise in my chest. "You're right, I don't need you! I don't want you, or Jenna and especially not Elena." He's practically hissing now. "So why don't you all just fuck off and get out of my life!" My own anger's back and I no longer want to put up with this.

"Go ahead; tell me I'm worthless, that you don't need me in your life. Bring it on. I don't care anymore Jeremy. You don't need us? Fine." I say calmly, completely surprising my brother. "You don't want a family anymore? That's fine too. We can just walk out on you, if that's what you really want. We'll _leave_ you." I'm right in front of him now and a stare at him with the most disappointment, anger and hurt that I can muster. "Just know that it won't be death making us leave. It will be _you_." I'm perfectly calm, while Jeremy's ready to explode. " _You_ will be the one who drives us away. _You_ will be the one who ruins our already strained and messed up relationship. If you keep acting like this, you _will_ make us leave, it's inevitable." I pause, but not enough to give him a chance to speak. "You'll destroy us."

* * *

I run down our street, anger making me ignore the burn in my thighs. I left Jeremy alone at the house, slamming the door in his face and swiftly leaving him behind.

I make it to the school park and I sit down in the sand, sinking down onto the ground. Sobs rip their way up my throat and I shake as I cry, sniffling and gasping. After the cry that I desperately needed, I stand up and walk to the road, turning to make my way back to the town square. Just as I'm about to round the corner, I see Caroline across the street, walking towards her car. She's not alone; however, she's being followed by a dark figure. I start to shout but a hand quickly wraps around my mouth and I get pulled back down the road.

"I'd rather you not warn her." A voice whispers in my ear and I struggle, trying to elbow him in the stomach. "Don't even try." Damon grabs my elbow with his left hand. I don't stop so he shifts his right hand down to grip my neck. "Would you rather I hold you here?" He snarls dangerously and I freeze, eyes alight with fear. I feel his grip tighten around my neck, and I'm sure I'll have bruises shaped like a hand come morning.

"Asshole." I spit out but I begin to choke as he tightens his grip even more. My heart jumps in fear and I start to shake, despite my best efforts to hide my terror. He smiles sadistically and drops me, causing me to land on the ground with a thud. As I kneel on the ground, choking, he crouches down to grab my chin.

"Let me have my fun with Caroline, or I will kill her, right here, right now." His tone is cold and dangerous and predatory, and I shiver as his mouth gets closer to my ear. "And once I'm done draining her, I'll come back to kill you." I flinch away from him, but I still send him a glare.

"Go to hell." I hiss, but I know better than to fight him. He'd only kill her. So I turn away from him dejectedly, showing my compliance. He squeezes my shoulder and the friendly gesture makes me feel sick.

"Thanks kid." He says it so innocently that I actually have to fight the urge to punch him in the face. Not that I had a chance of hitting him, he was gone a second after he finished saying thanks, the word 'kid' was only a fragment on the wind.

* * *

I stand, shivering, as I reach out to ring the doorbell. I only have to wait a few seconds before she flings the door open, the warm air wafting out of the small house and warming me briefly.

"Can I stay at your place?" I ask her softly, and I feel the tears start to pool as she pulls me into a hug.

"Did you and Jer fight?" Bonnie is very understanding. I nod. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not yet." I say, my voice fogged by my tears. I wipe them away and give Bonnie a watery smile. "Wow, I'm a wreck. Thanks Bon, for everything." I laugh. She gives me a knowing smile, and I grin in return. "Am I this predictable?" Bonnie hugs me tighter and laughs along with me.

"Yes." Bonnie answers. "But don't worry; you can come to me whenever you need help."

"Thanks." I whisper, and Bonnie ushers me in, where she makes me sit on the couch as she brings in her multitude of junk food. There's cookies, chips and candy galore, making my eyes widen in delight. "Food!" Bonnie nods enthusiastically in agreement. She loves sweets as much as I do, so we often eat our problems together.

And that's just what we do.

We sit, eating our body weight in junk food, and Bonnie listens as I recount my previous fight with Jeremy, the hurtful things we said to each other, and I listen eagerly as she tells me about her family history. I think her witch heritage is cool, but Bonnie isn't as sure as I am. I spend a while convincing her to no end that having super powers and witchy magic is totally cool. In the end, she reluctantly agrees with me, after I promise that I will stick by her side even if she's a witch.

I laugh harder than I should at the irony of her being a witch, and Bonnie looks at me curiously, since she doesn't know that there's actually a very big chance that she is a witch, and really, supernatural beings aren't actually make believe. In fact, there are a couple vampires roaming around. Of course I don't say this but I do continue to giggle about it, and soon Bonnie joins in, and we fall into hysterics.

By then, it's 2 o'clock in the morning, we missed the comet, so we end up fast asleep, sprawled across the couch. But honestly, the night wasn't wasted, in my opinion.


	4. Friday Night Bites

Chapter four: Friday Night Bites

I wake up in the morning feeling like….well, crap actually. My stomach hurts from all the cookies and candy and chips we ate and the couch wasn't the most comfortable. Bonnie moves when she feels the couch rise after I get up and she cracks an eye open.

"Breakfast?" She asks me and I shake my head. I grab a couple of cookies as my breakfast, no matter how unhealthy, and walk into the washroom. I pull my shirt down to reveal the dark purple bruises around my throat. I put my hood of my sweater up, trying to hide the bruises, but I'm sure I look suspicious with my hood up. Whatever. As long as they don't see the bruises. "Hey Ivy! You have a bunch texts and voicemails from Elena!"

I freeze and curse. "Just text her for me! Tell her I stayed the night at your place," I call back to her. She texts my sister as I shuffle back into the living room, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"She wants you to call her," Bonnie tells me and I sigh, running my hand through my hair. I nod and hold my hand out for my cell phone. Bonnie hands it to me with a smirk, and I make a face.

"Wish me luck." I smirk and dial Elena's number. "Hey Lena!" I don't get a cheery greeting back however.

 _Where the hell were you!?_

I cringe at her instant yelling and roll my eyes. "I stayed over at Bonnie's." Elena's silent; she knows why I would spontaneously sleep over at Bonnie's house.

 _How bad was it?_

I bite my lip and look down at my feet. "Pretty bad. He made a comment about how he doesn't need or want me in his life, yet again, and I snapped." I hear Elena sigh.

 _What did you say?_

I sigh with her and answer hesitantly. "I said 'just like how you didn't need mum and dad'. He was pretty hurt by it. So he snapped and said some more stuff about how he wants me out of his life. And, well, I replied with some more hurtful things." I sigh guiltily. "I can't say I regret finally telling him what I feel, but I can say it wasn't the best way or time to say it." I hear Elena start pacing.

 _What did you say?_ She asks again.

"Well, I basically told him that if he keeps pushing us away, we will leave him. I would leave him, and it won't be because of death. It would be because of him. Either way, I said, I couldn't deal with it anymore." There's silence on the other end and I can't tell if she's angry at me.

 _Well, he certainly understood. He's been unusually nice to me and Jenna, guilty even. So maybe, just maybe, you finally got to him. He really cares about you, Ivy. I would say you're his favourite, and I don't think he would risk losing you. I guess all it took to get him back on track was hearing it from you._

I can't help it, I smile. "Really?"

 _Yes, really. I'll pick you up, okay?_

I nod, but I realize she can't hear me, so I whisper yes. With that, we hang up.

Bonnie raises her eyebrows. "So? Did she give you hell?" I laugh but shake my head.

"No," I say softly and smile. Bonnie gives me a look, so I elaborate. "Apparently, Jeremy might have finally gotten back on track because of what I told him." Bonnie smiles happily.

"That's great Ivy!" She cheers and I smile gratefully at her. Just then, the doorbell rings. It's Elena, so I wave goodbye, and head out.

"Hey Lena," I say, getting in. I turn to look at her and she gives me a look, gesturing with her head to look back. I do, and I see my brother. "Jeremy?" He smiles guiltily.

"Hey," He whispers. "I wanted to apologize. I never wanted to push you guys away, I just-" He pauses and breathes deeply. "I just didn't know how to deal with it." I give him a grim smile and pat his hand.

"You could've talked to us." He hangs his head sadly.

"I know, and from now on, I will," He answers solemnly. "I promise."

"Cross your heart?"

He smiles softly. "Cross my heart."

* * *

"What are you doing?" I ask Elena, walking into the kitchen to see her dumping pasta from an aluminum container into a dish with Bonnie standing beside her, looking grim.

"I invited Stefan and Bonnie for dinner," Elena answers simply. I raise my eyebrow.

"Why?" Elena looks at me and sighs.

"To hang out, why else?" I look over at Bonnie who shrugs helplessly and I scrunch up my eyebrows.

"Bonnie doesn't like Stefan," I answer, giggling, and Bonnie snorts. Elena looks at both of us with a shocked expression on her face, almost offended, but she quickly composes her expression and rolls her eyes.

"Well, she'll get over it once we have dinner." I smirk at her.

"You're trying to get them to like each other by forcing them into dinner?" Elena tilts her head and shrugs.

"I wouldn't say force. I'm simply making them have dinner together." Bonnie rolls her eyes so Elena sticks her tongue out. "It allows them to have the opportunity to get to know each other."

"Forcing them to have dinner doesn't guarantee that they'll like each other," I point out. "Who knows, maybe they just hate each other naturally." Elena snorts.

"No one naturally hates someone else. There's always an underlying reason." She dumps a salad into a bowl, and crosses her arms, looking sternly at me. "Either way, if it's an unfounded reason, getting to know each other will fix the hostility between them." I roll my eyes.

"You hope." Elena practically slams the salad down in exasperation when she goes to place it on the table.

"What's wrong with having hope, Ivy?" We have a stare down until I look away. I'll let her have this one, since tonight's the first time since our parent's deaths that she's actually been eager to have people over.

I slump my shoulders in defeat. "Fine Elena, I guess they could _try_ to work it out." I roll my eyes when she gives me a triumphant smile, walking towards me.

"That's my girl," She says affectionately, kissing me on the top of my head before going into the cabinets to grab some plates. "Here. Set the table." I roll my eyes again but listen, quickly putting the plates down.

Once I'm done, I start heading to the stairs, just as the doorbell rings.

"Ivy, get that!" Elena yells to me and I wave my hand in acknowledgement, before pulling the door open to reveal Stefan.

"Hi Stefano," I chirp. He smiles at me before handing over a bottle of wine. I look at it approvingly, and nod. "Nice wine. Good choice," I say delicately but Stefan just rolls his eyes because he knows I have no idea what I'm talking about. I clear my throat. "You do know Elena's underage, right?" Stefan again rolls his eyes at me.

"The wine's for you aunt," He says. "I don't know any other dinner gifts other than wine, so I brought it. Obviously, you're all underage, so it's for Jenna." I just shrug my shoulders and skip into the kitchen, placing it on the counter, looking over my shoulder to see if Stefan's coming in.

"What's for dinner?" He asks and I shrug.

"Ask Elena, she bought it from the store," I answer, and Elena coughs, giving me a look. I blink, but quickly understand. "Wait, no never mind, she…didn't buy it?" But it's more of a question than a statement so Elena sighs and gestures with her hand, telling me to keep talking. "Um… I guess she made it," I finish undoubtedly, looking at Stefan confidently. He raises his eyebrow.

"She made it, huh?" Stefan chuckles and I snort.

"Yep," Elena cheers. "Cook Elena at your service." Stefan laughs along with her and I smile. The food is finally ready so we sit down to eat, Bonnie, Elena, Stefan and I.

After a while, Stefan and Bonnie _do_ start to warm up to each other, and Elena sends me a smug smirk. I roll my eyes at her before sticking my tongue out and she starts to laugh. Just as Stefan is getting into the interesting parts about Bonnie's witchy heritage, there's someone at the door.

I send Elena a curious look but she just gestures at the door for me to go and answer it. I shrug and get up, walking over as they ring the bell again.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" I shout, finally reaching the door as I roll my eyes. After the rude gesture, my eyes widen in shock when I see Caroline and _Damon_ standing on the front porch, a friendly, slightly dazed smile on Caroline's face and a cruel smirk on Damon's. My eyes narrow at the sight of him, and I turn to Caroline instead, ignoring him. She beams at me, so I smile tentatively back, and she gives me what she has in her hands.

"We brought red velvet!" She sings and I take it from her, turning to walk back into the kitchen. I pause, looking over my shoulder to see Caroline come skipping in after me, and Damon frowning coldly at me.

I turn to look at him and I see his eyes flash dangerously before he growls, revealing his sharp fangs. I shudder but successfully hide it before placing the cake on the counter. Caroline turns to me and so does Elena.

"Is there someone else at the door?" My sister asks and I shake my head vehemently.

"No, no, I just left it open by accident!" I shout while I run back to the front door, slamming it in Damon's very violent and malevolent face. Caroline comes up to me.

"Hey, what about Damon?" Caroline asks, confused. I take advantage of her confusion and give her my own look of bewilderment. I shake my head.

"Who?" I ask stupidly. Caroline stares at me, her mouth open, still confused.

"My boyfriend…" She trails off and I shake my head again, tilting it to the side.

"Caroline, I didn't see anyone with you," I say slowly, putting as much concern in my voice without making her suspicious. Caroline's mouth opens and closes with shock, and she starts to believe me.

"Really? I'm sure I came with him." I shake my head again.

"I didn't see anyone," I shrug. Then I give her a worried look, placing my hand on her shoulder when she puts her head down. "Hey, are you okay?" Caroline looks up at me and shakes her head weakly.

"I don't know," She admits, looking over at the door. "I'm sure he was there…" We stand there in silence, both puzzled. Well, she's puzzled. I'm planning. After a few seconds, I snap my fingers.

"I know why, Care," I say, relieved. She looks at me hopefully. "You've spent so much time with him; that it feels like he's always with you now." Caroline looks at me for a second and then nods slowly.

"Yeah," She says, before nodding faster. "Yeah that makes sense."

"Okay," I say, patting her shoulder. "Come sit down with us." She looks at us with a sad expression on her face, before she comes to sit down. A few minutes pass, and then she starts to cry.

"He promised he'd come with me," Caroline sobs and I feel guilty that my lie made her sad. I forgot how insecure she is and Damon must have made her feel better.

"It's okay," I soothe. "Maybe he's just late." She looks up at me.

"You think?" As she says this, there's a knock at the door. I go to stand up, but Elena's already halfway there, Stefan trailing after her. I panic and catch his eye, and I see him shake his head subtly, a warning.

"Maybe that's him," Elena says, smiling at her best friend. Caroline perks up, going to follow them. I stand up, after I sigh in defeat, and go with them to the door.

"Sorry I'm late," Damon smiles cordially and he turns to Stefan. "Hey, little brother." He smirks and then hands some flowers over to Caroline, kissing her on the head. "You got the cake, right?"

Elena smiles at him. "Yes, thank you." Damon just nods his head. He then turns to look at me.

I narrow my eyes at him, but his face barely changes, there's just a slightly more sinister edge to his smirk accompanied with a dangerous flash in his eyes. "Nice to see you again, Ivy."

"You've met?" Elena asks looking between Damon and me, surprised. I just glare at him.

Damon smiles delicately. "Yes, we ha-"

"No, we haven't," I interrupt him, panicking. Damon just raises an eyebrow at me, with the smirk still there and I fight the urge to slam the door in his face again, claiming that _everyone's_ hallucinating now.

"Oh?" He asks. "I just imagined it then?"

"You must have me mixed up with someone else," I say innocently and he laughs.

"You're right, of course," He agrees, and smiles politely at me. "So, Ivy, can I come in?"

Remember I said that despite me being shy, I sometimes have really stupid bouts of impulsiveness? Well, this is one of those times. I blame it on the frustration and the fact that a killer vampire's at my door.

"Are you kidding me?" I hiss. "Of course not, screw off!" I walk forward and go to slam the door in his face again but Elena pulls me back, grabbing my arms before I can reach it. She gives me a disappointed look, before turning to Damon, the devil incarnate, and smiles apologetically.

"Um, hold on a second, okay?" She asks civilly before pulling me away from the others and into the living room. She raises her eyebrow furiously and I just glare back, refusing to say sorry. She scowls at me. "Ivy, we don't have all day to do this." I continue to scowl. "It can be the easy way or the hard way, kid." I scowl at the word kid and shrug, grunting noncommittedly. "I take that as an agreement." She grabs my wrist and pulls me towards the door, half dragging me. Damon smirks at the display and I very childishly stick my tongue out at him.

Elena finally stops pulling me and I stand there, arms crossed. He continues to smirk back at me. A chuckle escapes through my taut lips when I see him extending a hand, but getting stopped by an invisible barrier. He hears and his cocky smirk falters, his expression turning sinister and threatening, lip curling away from his teeth. I jump and look around; trying to see if anyone else noticed, but Elena's just staring at me angrily, and Caroline and Bonnie are just confused. Stefan's the only one who noticed because he's staring at his brother hostilely.

Bonnie looks at me and I just shrug, so she raises her eyebrow. "Are we all just gonna stand here?" She looks between me and my sister and I sigh slowly, knowing that keeping people waiting isn't proper either.

"I'm sorry," I deadpan. "That was rude. I hope you're not offended." Damon laughs.

"No, no, it's fine," Damon chuckles and his eyes meet mine, a cruel flash in them. I shudder but it's gone before he notices. "Doesn't hurt _me_." But it does, or _will_ hurt me and that's what he's telling me. I shudder and he just smirks when he notices that I understand, raising an eyebrow, waiting for my compliance.

Elena sighs. "Fine, Ivy. You're not going to do it, I will." She turns to Damon after sending me a disappointed look. "Damon, you-"

"Elena, don't!" I interrupt her, grabbing her arm, and lucky for me, she stops speaking.

She turns at me, surprised and horrified. "Ivy-" I tug her arm and she stops.

I open my mouth to plead but Stefan catches my eye as he shakes his head subtly, eyes flickering over to Damon, who's currently watching us impatiently, eager to get in the house. Damon looks at me menacingly and I watch as he grips onto Caroline's elbow, pulling her towards him and he puts his mouth down to her neck, as a warning. I gulp when I realize what he'll do if he's not invited in. So I stop avoiding it.

"You can come in," I say dejectedly and he smiles gloatingly at me, stepping extravagantly into the house. Elena gives me a confused look at first, but smiles at me for being polite, continuing into the kitchen along with Bonnie, Stefan and Caroline. Damon walks up behind me, grabs my shoulder, and leans down to whisper in my ear.

"Thanks for the invitation." His cold breath sends shivers down my spine as it tickles my ear. "Just remember, I'm invited in now, so I can come into your house any time I want to." He turns his face to look at me and I see the sadistic glint in his eyes, making me recoil in fear. "If you try anything like this again, I _will_ kill you."

I stare at him fearfully, but also defiantly. "Go to hell," I say. Gone is my introverted side, now I'm running on pure adrenaline and anger. I pull back my fist, preparing to punch him. Just as I begin, I feel Stefan's hand grab my elbow, stopping me and allowing Damon to pull away out of my range.

Damon smirks. "Wow, little mouse, you're feisty." He laughs, shaking his head before turning to walk into the kitchen. He pauses, his back to me, but turns his head so I can only see the side profile of his face. "Just remember my warning." His voice lowers dangerously and I shiver in fear. He chuckles at my racing pulse, and continues to walk. I'm frozen in place, before everything catches up to me, and I scowl.

"Little mouse?" I bristle at the name, and turn to Stefan, who frowns apologetically.

"My brother's a dick," He says and I only grunt in agreement, before we both follow him into the kitchen.

* * *

They're currently sitting around like old women with cups of tea, and having small talk. I hide a giggle as I silently do my homework in the T.V room, curled up in a chair, eavesdropping into their conversation.

"I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team!" Caroline gushes to Stefan. "Ah, Tyler must be seething. But, good for you, go for it." She is impervious to awkward looks that are on Stefan and Elena's face and I wonder if the compulsion that Damon obviously has her under is messing with her social skills.

"That's what I always tell him," Damon begins and I automatically scowl at the sound of his voice, looking up to see Stefan's reaction to Damon's obvious insult. "You have to engage. You can't sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it." I narrow my eyes at the looks that Stefan and Damon are sending each other, because they're definitely not filled with brotherly love. Quite the opposite, really. I'm curious to the history between them that made them this way, and despite it all, I really want to ask.

"Yeah Elena wasn't so lucky today," Caroline states. "It's only because you missed summer camp. I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines."

"I'll work with her. She'll get it," Bonnie assures Caroline. But Caroline's still talking to herself.

"I guess we could put her in the back," She muses. Elena sends her a look and again, Caroline's oblivious. It's like she has no filter. Granted, sometimes _my_ filter disappears, like my earlier outburst showed, but only _rarely_. Caroline's usually good at refraining from insulting her friends, so this has to be something more.

"Yeah you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena," Damon comments.

"Oh it's just cause her parents died," Caroline says it so easily and tactlessly that I choke, spluttering as she continues. "Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase," She starts to laugh. "She used to be way more fun." She _finally_ notices the looks on both Elena's and Bonnie's faces, and my indignant choking sounds. "And I say that with complete sensitivity."

Something's definitely up.

"I'm sorry Elena," Damon says. I look up, interested to hear what _he's_ got to say. "I know what it's like to lose both your parents in fact Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die."

"We don't need to get into that right now, Damon," Stefan says. His voice has an undertone of condescension. Oh, do I sense some hostility, anger, resentment? Or is it a lot?

"Huh, you know what you're right, Stefan," Damon says, almost mockingly, and I notice that I'm not the only one that's sensing something _off_ with their relationship. From the look on Bonnie's face, she's feeling a little uncomfortable too. "I'm sorry, the last thing I wanted to do was to bring her up." I roll my eyes; Damon's not very subtle with bringing up topics that Stefan would rather avoid while in the worst situation possible for him to talk about said topics, endangering his relationship with Elena and a possible friendship with Bonnie.

Elena looks at Stefan and he clenches his jaw, turning to look away from his brother. Hmm, a girl, huh? Might it be Katherine, the elusive vampire that's actually alive, according to my future self? I'm itching to figure it out, but I hold my tongue. I can wait for a better moment. Who knows, maybe I'll hear a conversation about it.

* * *

Lady Luck likes me this time.

"Earlier, did you mean, Katherine?" Elena asks as she loads the dishwasher with Damon. "How did she die?" Damon seems to hesitate, but only for a moment.

"A fire," He hesitates. "Tragic. Fire." Well, her death's a touchy subject, is it?

"Recently?" Elena asks aghast.

"Seems like it was yesterday," Damon answers, but I know it must be a while ago. How old are they, 100?

I ignore them as they go into what she was like, only listening at the mention that she was beautiful like Elena. Note to self, look up the definition of a doppelgänger. He also said she was selfish, not very kind. She sounds like the vampire I met. K-A-T, K-A-Thrine. Can't be a coincidence.

I go into the dining room, away from the kitchen, needing a quieter place to do my homework and a solid surface.

I hear Stefan and Caroline talking, and I listen closer when I notice Caroline's weird behaviour regarding a scarf. Before anything interesting happens, Damon comes walking in. Disregarding my previous thought, something interesting _does_ happen, and it comes in the form of Damon Salvatore.

"They're people, Damon," Stefan says, disgusted. "She's not a _puppet_ that exists for your amusement, for you to _feed_ on whenever you want to." I shiver in fear at the fact that _two_ vampires are now invited into our house. I make a mental note to stock up on the vervian supply. Luckily Elena has some in her system.

"Sure she does," Damon says simply. "They all do. They're whatever I want them to be. They're _mine_ for the taking." I skootch my seat further forward, ensuring that they cannot see me from where they're sitting, and I have a mini panic attack at the thought of him being able to hurt us, whenever he wants to.

"You've had your fun; you used Caroline to get to me and Elena. Now it's time for you to go."

"That's not a problem," Damon says cruelly. "I've been invited in. I'll come back tomorrow night, and the following night, and I'll do with your little cheerleader whatever I _want_ to do. Because that is what is normal to me." I freeze and clench my fists hard, trying to keep myself from freaking out. Eventually they're done talking and I focus on breathing steady, keeping my heart from jumping out of my chest.

"Hey, little mouse." Damon's voice is in my ear and I jump, backing away from him. Unlucky for me, I'm on a chair so I start to fall off. Damon, even if he doesn't have the decency to see Caroline as something other than a way to get sex and blood, he _does_ have the decency to help me, stopping me from hitting the ground.

Despite it all, I'm polite; manners were practically ingrained into my very being as a child, so I reluctantly smile at him. "Thanks for catching me." I smile grudgingly at him.

"No problem Ivy," He says smoothly, and smiles kindly. I puzzle over how I was able to have a conversation with him that night, how we were able to talk about people that we've both lost, yet he's going around, killing people and using my friend as a walking blood bag. Psychopaths _are_ manipulative and charming.

"What do you want, Damon?" I ask weakly, and I hate myself for being weak, for being scared of this seemingly nice guy, who's actually a potential serial killer. He smiles dangerously.

"I want what every vampire wants," Damon says easily. I shiver and he laughs at me. "I want power, revenge, control, and oh, don't forget blood." He inhales. "By the way, your blood smells delicious."

I don't know how to respond to that so instead I turn my eyes to the ground, unable to look at him.

"Do you remember what I told you on the street, Ivy?" He asks me and I clench my jaw.

"Yes," I grit out and finally dare to look him in the eye. He raises his eyebrow, but otherwise doesn't change his expression or intimidating stance.

"Then you know not to interfere," He reminds me. "Like I said to Stefan, I've been invited in, and I can do with your sister whatever I want to. That goes for you too." He leans closer towards my face, fangs visible behind his lips. "So don't you dare test me, or underestimate me, because I can tear you limb from limb in an instant."

"I got it," I whisper and he chuckles, patting me condescendingly on the head.

"Good. I'm glad we understand each other," He says cheerily, before walking off.

* * *

Damon and Caroline leave first, leaving just Bonnie and Stefan left. Bonnie and Elena are talking, leaving Stefan alone, so I go up to him. I look down at my feet, biting my lip.

"Stefan, can I ask you something?" He looks up at me.

"Yeah, shoot," He answers, turning his full attention towards me.

"What does Katherine look like?" I see his face darken, and I begin to panic. He seems to see my fear because he smiles reassuringly at me.

"Like your sister, actually," He answers casually, meanwhile I choke. Kat looked exactly like my sister.

"Like a doppelgänger?" I ask him and he raises his eyebrow. "A doppelgänger is a supernatural creature, clones pretty much. Since Katherine's older, Elena would be a carbon copy of her."

Stefan nods. "Then yes, like a doppelgänger." I nod, trying to keep my cool. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason, just curious," I answer, and then turn to stare seriously at him. "You loved her?"

Stefan pauses, considering it. "I loved her, yes. In the beginning. Near the end, I realized she was no good, that she was playing us the whole time. And for that, I do not love her."

"Do you love Elena because you see in her what Katherine could have been?" Stefan shakes his head.

"No," Stefan says easily. "Katherine was a vampire; she turned way before I was born, in fact. Whatever, whoever, she was back then was gone by the time Damon and I came along and nothing could bring the girl back. Elena is not like her. She's more compassionate, strong and loving than Katherine could ever be."

"Okay," I state, looking down at my hands. There's a moment of silence, but it isn't an uncomfortable silence, so I let it continue on, glad to have a time to think to myself. "Could she be alive, do you think?"

"I don't know," He admits and just shrugs. " _If_ she is, we'd have heard about it by now." I nod.

"Okay," I repeat. "Does Damon love her?" He looks down at his feet.

"She was dating us both, convincing both of us that it was _only_ us that she loved, but she loved neither of us. She was playing us all along." Stefan sighs. "I told my father, eventually that Katherine was a vampire, because I knew that the towns folks, and him, were planning to kill the town vampires." Stefan closes his eyes. "But I hoped that he'd leave Katherine out of it." He pauses, opening them again and looking at me sadly. "He didn't, of course. He got her, and before me and Damon could free her, he killed us both, with vampire blood in our system."

"That's how you turned." I look at him grimly and he nods.

"Yes," Stefan confirms. "I was the reason Katherine died, and he loved her." He sighs again. "It was the final nail in the coffin when I made him complete the transition by killing our father, and making him feed."

"You killed your father?" I ask, slightly appalled at how one can do that. Stefan nods.

"Yes," Stefan's lip curls up from his teeth. "Giuseppe, my father, was a terrible man. He loved no one, sent my mother to a sanitarium to die, and he beat Damon and I on a regular basis."

"Then why did Damon hate you? It sounded like he'd be fine with it."

Stefan sighs. "Because I forced him to drink our father's blood to feed. He didn't want to change, he wanted to die so he could be with Katherine, since she died, but I made him live an eternity without her."

"And now he hates you." Stefan nods. "That's why he's ruining our lives as well, because you're here."

"Yes. And I'm sorry Ivy, I really am." I shake my head.

" _You_ don't have to be," I assure him. " _You're_ not responsible for Damon's actions, so I don't fault you." I look at him. "So that's how you turn into a vampire? Dying with vampire blood in your system?" Stefan nods in confirmation. I consider this. "Is Caroline at risk?"

"Very little," Stefan assures me and I sigh in relief.

"But he's still hurting her," I lament and he nods guiltily as well. "I can give her vervian." Stefan's eyes widened. "What?"

"You have vervian?" He asks, astonished. I scrunch my eyebrows.

"Yes?" I say, more of a question though. "I got it from some weird pawn shop, not here though, in another town." He nods in understanding. "Why?"

"Vervian doesn't grow here anymore," Stefan elaborates. "Damon made sure of it a while ago."

"Oh," That's my eloquent response. I clear my throat. "Thanks Stefano." He rolls his eyes and smiles before getting up and heading over to my sister.

I sigh, and just plead desperately to fate that history won't be repeating itself.

* * *

"She's alive." I sigh in reluctant agreement.

"I know, Adaline, but how can I be _sure_ that you're right?" I plead with her and she huffs.

"Did you really think that the _vampire_ you met that looked _exactly_ like your sister, who even _guessed_ the person you thought she looked like, wasn't suspicious? It isn't a coincidence that the Salvatore brothers are here and so is Katherine." I purse my lips and sulk. "I'm right, Ivy, just admit it."

"So your vision then?" I ask weakly. "It's true, is it?" Adaline nods, but rolls her eyes slightly as well.

"Of course it's real," Adaline pauses. "Mind you, just because you _do_ what I envision, doesn't mean the events that you prevent won't end up happening. Eventually, they will, and they can be as soon as 30 seconds after you do what I predicted completely. I don't change fate, Ivy, I just predict it."

"Then what's the point?" Adaline pauses again, thinking about it.

"The point is that you _know_ ," She finally answers. "You know what's coming, and even if you can't _change_ it, you can decide how to _deal_ with it. Whether it's bad or good, you know ahead of time how to get through it. My power allows you to prepare for any situation," She sighs, as if it's a terrible weight to have. "To prepare for the emotional, mental and physical effects of the event and allows you to figure out how to deal with it in a healthy way."

I sigh and sit down onto my bed. "So Bonnie's still going to be attacked by Damon?" I wail and Adaline nods in unenthusiastic affirmation.

"Yes," She winces. "But you'll delay it, you saw that. After, I don't know. I don't know how long it will be until Damon will bite her, but he will, and you won't be able to stop it, since I didn't see it." I look at her sadly. " _But_ you _know_ what's going to happen," She enthuses. "You know how to help her, how to help her move on from it in a way that leaves the least emotional and mental damage. You can help." I nod, reassured.

"Okay," I whisper. "What about Caroline? Should I give her vervian?" Adaline shrugs.

"Stefan's going to deal with it," She assures me and I sigh.

"Yeah, but I still want to _help_ her."

"Ivy, you're human."

"Sometimes, it sucks being human," I complain, and flop down onto my bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Yes," Adaline admits. "But you're not _completely_ human." I blink. She gives me a look and a smirk creeps up my face when I realize what she's implying.

"I can astral project and stake Damon!" I clap. Adaline looks shocked.

"What? No!" She shouts and shakes her head violently. I look at her, confused.

"Why not?" She grabs a fistful of her hair, and starts pacing. "Adaline, he _kills_ people!"

"No, no!" She shakes her head again. "I _need_ him! It'll all fall apart if you kill him!" She gives me an evil look, and I feel a flash of fear creep up my spine. What the hell?

"What?" I ask, alarmed. She's still rambling about something, and I slowly back away from her. She begins to laugh and I get even more nervous. It doesn't really sound like evil laughter though.

"Omg, I totally got you!" She chortles and I cross my arms.

"That wasn't funny," I grumble. "Seriously! You _were_ the one who warned me about evil ghosts!"

"Yeah, I know, but I was _shocked_ at your penchant for _murder_ as an answer to a problem and when I freaked out like that, and you looked confused, the idea just _popped_ into my head and I _had_ to go with it!" I huff.

"Wasn't funny," I protest. Adaline continues to laugh at me, but stops eventually when I shove her off the bed. She glares at me, but I just smirk at her. "Anyways, about that plan for murder?" Adaline turns serious.

"No staking the vampire," She says, shaking her finger at me. I give her a look.

"Why not?" I ask her, not understanding. She gives me a disappointed look. "He kills people!" Her look is still there. "Come on, you can't be saying that he should be given a chance!" She coughs. "Wait, you _are_?!"

"Bingo!" Adaline cheers and I groan. "Hey, don't be like that. You can't _really_ believe that he's a monster through and through, can you? Remember that conversation you had with him that night of the party?"

"Yeah, before he _hurt_ someone!" I protest and Adaline gives me such a pathetic look, that I feel myself beginning to want to look for something good in him. "Okay fine. Damon _did_ hurt people, but so did _Stefan_ and I know since I gave _Stefan_ a chance then I shouldn't judge _Damon_ so harshly. Plus, I don't think I _can_ murder anyone, even a vampire," I admit, but before Adaline can be too happy, I continue. " _But_ he has to prove himself. If he shows he's a monster, _truly_ , through and through, I'll consider murder, okay?" Adaline tilts her head.

" _Technically_ , that's kinda hypocritical," Adaline points out and I shrug in agreement.

"Well, since I am throwing my original views on what it means to be good and evil out the window, then I am also negating any hypocrisy and the rules surrounding that, yeah?" Adaline nods.

"Fair enough," She gives me. She turns to look at me. "Okay, here's the deal. You give Stefan and Damon equal chance to prove themselves _good_ people and you have to give them _at least_ three chances, and if they mess up, then you're allowed to do whatever." I nod, and sigh.

"To be honest, I don't think that if they _did_ mess up, that I could go through with staking them," I admit. "I mean, they're still essentially _people_ in a way, and by the time the third chance rolls around, I'll probably be _pretty_ attached," I pause and Adaline raises an eyebrow. "So if they _are_ monsters, then I'll walk out, demand that they leave me and get out of my life. Because I _won't_ sit around caring for people who kill others."

"Okay," Adaline says. "It doesn't matter right now, anyways, you're still not strong enough to interact with the mortal plane yet, so when you go to sleep, you don't have to astral project."

I nod. Just a week after I first met Adaline, I was able to control my astral projection. So now, I can leave my body whenever I choose to; even when all I do is close my eyes. "Okay. Night, Adaline."

* * *

"Ivy!" Elena calls. "We're going to the game, meet us there, okay?"

"Yeah," I call back. "I'm going with Kara and Jess, so I'll see you there!"

Eventually, after Elena leaves, there's a knock at the door. I run down and open it, smiling.

"Are you ready for the game?" Kara cheers, dressed in our school colours, complete with a foam finger.

I laugh. "Of course! I love football." I try to fake enthusiasm. Kara is all for it, but Jess, who I'm closer to than Kara, just smirks and rolls her eyes. She knows me.

"Fake it 'til you make, am I right?" She asks, her question pointed towards me, and I snort.

"Oh yeah," I chuckle and shrug. "Honestly, I think Kara's the only one here who _actually_ likes football." Kara gives me a look, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Oh, no I like the people who _play_ football way more than the actual sport," She purrs and Jess laughs.

"You slut," She teases and Kara just smirks, flipping her hair. I laugh with them and we walk out of the house, and I close the door behind me. "But even I have to admit, Stefan is hot." She licks her lips.

Kara raises an eyebrow. "Aren't you, like, a devout Christian or something, 'no-sex-before-marriage' and all?" I nod along with Kara and Jess just rolls her eyes at us.

"Just because I can't actually enjoy the feast, doesn't mean I can't appreciate how delicious it looks."

We look at her, shocked at first, before bursting into a fit of giggles. "I can't believe you just said that!" Kara squeals.

"Hey, I am fourteen and all; of course I'd say those things," Jess sneers and I roll my eyes.

"No one's blaming you Jess, I mean, he is quite nice to look at," I admit and they nod in agreement.

"Wait," Kara says, stopping us. "Is your sister and him a thing?" They both look at me, and I shrug.

"I think so," I tell them, and Kara gives me a look. "Hey, don't look at me like that! He's not my type anyways, I'm just saying that I _understand_ why people do find him attractive." If type you mean fangy and immortal, then no, that is _definitely_ not my type. I bet that's Elena's type though, opposites do attract.

"Good," Kara states, patting me on the back. I laugh. "Don't go stealing your sister's guy." I roll my eyes. "Really, Ivy, that's like, a rule," She insists, so I cross my heart, and pinky promise, and she smiles, satisfied.

"We're here!" Jess sings, and she waltzes towards the bleachers, Cara and me following.

I sigh. Time for a boring game of football. Honestly, I don't know why I go to these things.

* * *

This was quite the event.

Mr. Tanner died, and I don't believe for a second that it was an animal attack.

"Two chances left," I mumble and look at Adaline out of the corner of my eye.

"Honestly, Ivy, at this point, I don't think you should keep track," Adaline advises. "Pretty soon, you're going to lose track, especially when it reaches the hundreds." I nod in agreement. Stefan walks up to me.

"It was Damon, wasn't it?" I ask him and he nods. "Why?"

"He's trying to ruin my life," Stefan says grimly and I shake my head angrily.

"Stefan, he's not ruining _your_ life, you're not the one _dead_ ," I say harshly. "Why are you here? If the reason he's killing people is to get at you, then why are you here?" I turn to look at him, and my gaze softens at the guilty look on his face. "Wait, Stefan, I'm sorry, I really didn't me-"

"No it's fine Ivy," He sighs. "It's too late. Even if I leave tonight, go somewhere else, he will still know that I care about Elena, about you." He looks down at me. "And that means everyone's still at risk."

I nod. "Why me?"

"What do you mean?" He asks and I sigh.

"Why do you care about _me_?" I ask, and he smiles softly.

"You look like my twin sister," He answers and my eyes widen when I remember.

"Evangeline," I say and Stefan nods, confused. I elaborate. "Damon called me that when I first ran into him," I pause, thinking. "That's probably why I made it out of that meeting alive." Stefan nods in agreement.

"Probably," He admits. "You do look like her. Not a carbon copy, or a-" He tests the word. "-doppelgänger, but you look similar, and your similarities with Evangeline probably brought out the humanity my brother has left." I nod, relieved that he _might_ not be a complete monster. I give him another chance, making him equal with Stefan. "The whole reason he attacked Tanner was because I talked about his humanity. I thought it was Katherine, the love he _still_ has for her." Stefan pauses. "But maybe it's Elena, or my sister," He looks over at me. "Or maybe it's you."

"Maybe," I whisper. "But why would it be me?" Stefan looks up at the stars.

"We loved Evangeline very much," Stefan states. "She remained innocent, naïve, despite the horrors that my father brought to us." Stefan pauses, sighing deeply. "She was our humanity, and when she died when we turned, our humanity died as well." I look over at him, alarmed.

"She died?" I ask him. "How?"

"When I came back to the house, to get my father, she was there," Stefan chokes. "She screamed. She was terrified of me. But, when my father came back, and pointed his gun at me, she jumped in front to save me from the bullet," He stopped, collecting himself. "That's when I killed my father."

"And what happened when you told Damon? About Evangeline?"

"That's when he lost hope," Stefan stated. "And that was when he truly, completely, hated me."

* * *

"Ivy." Bonnie's in front of me, terrified and shaking.

"Oh my god, Bonnie what's wrong?" I ask her and she begins to cry. I hug her, and after a few seconds, she pulls away to explain. She gives me a sad, and fearful look and I subconsciously tense.

"Those numbers I saw?" I nodded in recollection of her mentioning them to Elena. "Look." She points. "8. 14. 22." I freeze, turning to look at her, but she's staring listlessly at the ambulance. At least she's not crying anymore. I get her attention and she turns to look at me wearily, hiccupping, but not sobbing.

"Bonnie," I whisper. "Have you talked to your Grams?"

"No," Bonnie says, collecting herself. "She'll just say I'm a witch." I give her a look.

"You should really think about that witch business." She looks at me alarmed.

"What? No I can't- no I can't be a witch," She stutters. "Th-that's impossible!"

"It is though," I insist, and she shakes her head. "Hey, hey remember what I told you? About if you _are_ a witch?" Bonnie nods. "I'll help you get through this, and I won't leave you, even if you're a witch."

"Thanks Ivy," Bonnie says. "I'll ask her." She has a reluctant look on her face so I smile softly.

"Hey," I soothe her. "It's going to be fine. I know this sucks, Tanner's death." I hug her. "But who knows, if you are a witch, it could be pretty cool. And if you get very powerful, you can prevent this from happening again."

"Let's hope so," Bonnie says grimly, and I can't help but nod in agreement.

Let's hope so, but I'm not sure if hope can help us.


	5. Family Ties

Chapter five: Family Ties

I munch on my cereal as I sit at the table, swinging my feet as I giggle at Jenna.

"Scumball. Scumbucket." Jenna says disgustedly. Elena walks in and gives Jenna a look.

"Who are you talking to?" She asks, a little judgingly. Jenna turns to look at her.

"Him." She says, as if it's obvious, gesturing towards Logan Fell on the news.

"The news guy?"

"Also known as Logan Scumfell. Did your mum ever tell you why I moved away from Mystic Falls?"

"You and Scumfell were a thing!" I pipe up, and giggle. Elena gives Jenna a disbelieving look.

"He's cute." Elena admits, tilting her head. Jenna looks shocked. I laugh at her expression before heading upstairs towards my room, pausing at the door to laugh at Jenna's indignant response.

"He is not cute!" She chides. "There's nothing cute about him."

I head into the washroom, and brush my teeth, brushing my unruly, thick dark hair before giving up and braiding it quickly. The doorbell rings, and before I know it, Elena has dragged Stefan into her room. I chuckle and head down the hall towards my room, passing Elena's. I pop my head in, smiling mischievously.

"Keep it PG Lena!" I call out. "Don't wanna ruin me and Jer's innocence, now do you?"

"Can't corrupt something that doesn't exist!" She chirps back and I put a hand against my heart.

"Ooh that stings, almost as much as my eyes did." I smirk and Elena sticks her tongue out.

"If you didn't want to see it, you shouldn't have looked." She says, rolling her eyes. I chuckle and dash away, leaving before she could reach me as she got up, going towards the door.

* * *

"Do I have to go to the Founder's party?" I complain, sitting on the couch. Just as the words leave my lips, Jeremy walks in, looking indignant. Elena looks between us, and she crosses her arms. I sputter. "If Jer doesn't have to go, then I don't have to either." Elena gives me a pointed look, and I raise my eyebrow.

Elena huffs. "Guys, this was important to-"

"I'm not going." Jeremy says with finality, walking out. Elena sighs in frustration, turning to me.

"You're going." And I nod, because I know I don't have a choice. And it was important to mum.

Suddenly the doorbell rings, and Jeremy goes to answer it. He tenses and goes to slam the door in whoever's face that is at the door, but the person quickly speaks.

"I'm here for my mum. Supposed to pick up a box of stuff." Tyler says defensively.

Elena walks swiftly towards the door. "Right here. Please be careful."

"Yeah be careful with it, dick." Jeremy snaps, and Elena looks at him warningly.

"Hey, not now, okay guys? Please?" She says tiredly. Tyler looks at Jeremy antagonistically.

I roll my eyes, ignoring my brother and his pathetic feud, sighing in relief when the door closes.

* * *

I'm sitting in the living room, flipping through the channels, when I hear Bonnie begin talking about the so called backstory of Stefan that Damon made up. I roll my eyes, knowing that what they believe is not the truth, and I just hope that Elena has the smarts not to believe rumours.

"Stefan is none of those things!" Elena protests, and Bonnie gives her a look.

"Yeah? How do you know?" Bonnie challenges, and Elena's silent.

"I don't know Bon." She says quietly after some time. "But I trust him."

"Just be careful." Bonnie warns, squeezing Elena's hand gently. "Let's go do our hair now." Elena nods, so they get up, walking out towards the hall. Elena pauses, swinging into the living room.

"Ivy, you get ready as well, okay?" Elena reminds me and I sigh, standing up.

"Yeah sure." I grumble as I head up the stairs and into my room.

I open my closet and look through my large variety of dresses that my mum insisted on me having. A girl should have a dress for every occasion, she always said. I grab my most casual, a simple, maroon coloured dress with a halter top neckline, and a fitted skirt. It slides on easily, and I throw my hair into an elegant bun.

"Ahhh! God, what now?" Jeremy seethes, and I walk out of my room, heading over to his room. Elena's standing over Jeremy angrily, and Jeremy doesn't have a very happy expression on his face either. I sigh; these situations just keep on repeating themselves. Jeremy remembered his promise he made the night after the comet for about a week, but he quickly fell back into his bitter and cold personality.

"The pocket-watch. Where is it?" Elena demands. Jeremy struggles to take his headphones off.

"What? What watch?" His tone's condescending and disgusted, and I rub my temples wearily.

"The one you stole from mum's box." Elena snaps, crossing her arms. "Look, Ms. Lockwood just called me, freaking out. It was on the list Jeremy, and she can't find it and she thinks she lost it." Jeremy looks at her defiantly.

"And maybe she did." He sneers. "Maybe, uh, maybe Tyler took it."

"Don't even play that card Jeremy, you took it." Elena jabs the phone towards him and he goes to swat at it, but she pulls her hand back. "If I go online, am I going to find it on Ebay? Is that how you pay for your pot?" Elena accuses harshly. I shake my head. Low blow, Lena. Jeremy must think so too because he stands up angrily.

"Screw you!" He says bitterly, and gets up to grab it from somewhere on his shelf. "I would never sell this, okay?" His voice cracks with emotion, and I frown grimly.

"Then why did you take it?"

"Because it's supposed to be mine." Jeremy fumes. "Dad said it goes to the first born son. His father gave it to him, and now what?" He slaps the watch into Elena's hand, and she just looks at it, expression wistful.

"And he was going to give it to you." She murmurs, and I choke on the tears welling in my eyes.

"Yeah." Jeremy says, but his anger's gone, now replaced with barely hidden grief.

Elena walks out, but stops at the door, turning back around. "Jeremy, it's still yours, okay? Mum promised Ms. Lockwood, what do you want me to do?" Elena drops her hands in defeat. Jeremy looks at her coldly.

"Just take it and get out." He says dejectedly. Elena pauses, looking down at the watch, before leaving.

* * *

I look around me, watching the other part-goers, and I spin on my heel.

"Where're you going?" Elena calls out to me, but I continue walking.

"Home." I grumble, but Elena grabs my arm, preventing me from continuing.

"Why?"

I shrug. "I don't want to be here. Mum should be here with us, but she isn't, and it feels wrong."

"Ivy…" Elena trails off, a sorrowful look on her face. I look down.

"I'll get Bonnie to drive me home." Elena looks like she wants to protest, but after a few seconds, she just nods, letting me go. I pause, but nod, the tense atmosphere too much to handle. "Thanks, Lena."

She simply nods again, before going back up to the Lockwood manor. Once I see that she's gone, I bring out my phone, dialing Bonnie's number.

"Shit." I mutter when her number goes to voice mail.

"Need a ride?"

I jump, spinning to see who's speaking, and to my utter dismay, it's Damon. I clench my jaw, and bravely make eye contact with him for a few seconds. "No thank you, I'm fine." He looks at me, smirking.

"Doesn't seem like it." He sneers, walking closer, and I back up slightly.

"I'm _fine_." I grit out, eyeing him carefully. He leans towards me, pupils dilating.

"I insist." He purrs, and I hesitate. I don't want him to know I have vervian, so I nod, following him to his car. He goes over to the passenger side, and opens the door, allowing me to hop in. He then makes his way over to the driver's side, and leans towards me, his pupils dilating again. "I want you to be honest with me."

"Of course." I smile, and I thank the gods for the drama classes I had to suffer through. I much preferred music. He smiles at me, before starting the car, and pulling away.

"What does Stefan have planned?"

"Nothing I know about." I answer, slightly monotone, and I think he buys it, because he nods.

"I want you to stay out of it." He grits out, his hands tight around the steering wheel. He turns to look at me, eyes blazing, and I lean back against the door, slightly put off by his intense expression.

"Alright." I say, agreeing simply because I don't know what else to do. He studies me for a bit.

"Good." And his smirk's back. "Here you go, little mouse." I look out the window and see that I'm indeed at my house, so I quickly stumble out of the car, planning to simply walk away from him, bristling at the nickname.

But the manners that have been ingrained in me since I was young makes me suck in my pride, and turn around, smiling politely at Damon. "Thanks." I say, and he smiles, so genuine, that I smile sincerely back at him.

"You're welcome, Ivy." He says, before speeding off, back in the direction we came.

* * *

"So, Damon's abusing Care?"

Stefan nods. "Yes. He's biting her. _Feeding_ on her." He bares his teeth angrily.

I shudder. "Can you stop him?" Stefan reaches out, taking my hand.

He smiles, squeezing it gently. "We're working on it, Ivy. Don't worry, we'll save her."

"Who's 'we'?" I ask hesitantly. Stefan smiles.

"One of my living relatives." He answers. "He's growing vervian in the basement. I put a vial of liquid vervian in her drink. Damon fed on her tonight and since it was in her system, we got him."

I'm stunned. "That's great, Stefan. I mean, he's your brother and all, but I'm glad he's not hurting Caroline anymore." Stefan nodded, sending me an apologetic frown.

"I am sorry, Ivy. For bringing him into your lives."

"Forget about it, Stefan." I smile grimly. "As long as you're fixing it."

"Don't worry. I won't let him harm you, or Elena." He assures me. "I won't let you die this time."

"This time?" Stefan curses.

"Sorry, you just remind me so much like my sister." He smiles apologetically. "Of course, you're your own person, and I'm not trying to take that away from you, it's just, I think you remind us both of Evangeline, and she was really important to both of us, and I'm not trying to replace her, or make you her, I'm ju-"

"Stefan." I interrupt his rambling, chuckling lightly. "I know. And I'm not angry about that."

He smiles sheepishly. "You only look a little like her. Your eyes and hair. And height. But you're not her doppelgänger." I sigh in relief. I never wanted to be someone's doppelgänger. Too weird. "And you don't act like her. You're stronger and less naïve, though you still are a little bit naïve. You're sassier, and less introverted. She was very shy, and kind." I raise an eyebrow. "Not that you're not kind. Just, if someone's mean to you, you're not trying to be nice to them." He sighs. "I'm rambling, aren't I?" I laugh, nodding, and he chuckles with me.

"Yes, you are." I chuckle. "But it's nice. It sounds like you loved her very much." He smiles softly.

"We do." He says, so confident in how much he loves his sister, that it strikes me to the core, and I feel tears prickling my eyes. "I'm sorry for this rambling, it's just, I'm nervous, and I really want to help you guys."

I smile, before leaping at him and wrapping him in a hug, taking him by surprise. "Thank you, for everything." He looks at me, confused. "Thank you for making her happy." He smiles.

"She's making me happier too." He smiles down at me. "You both are."


	6. You're Undead to Me

Chapter Six: You're Undead to Me

"Ivy, do y-"

"Know why Vicki is in the washroom?" I grimace and Elena winces, nodding. Even though intentionally thinking about my brother having sex is like forcing myself to have a migraine; I'm happy for him, even if Vicki Donovan spends most of her time getting high. "Well, Jeremy and Vicki are having sex." I roll my eyes. "Duh."

Then I walk down stairs, and go to grab some cereal.

"Jenna," Elena says, walking in. "Are you aware of what is going on upstairs?"

"Uh huh." She says, so blasé that I laugh.

"And you have no objection?" Elena asks, raising an eyebrow. Jenna smirks.

"Well, he could be craftier about it. At least make an effort to sneak her in and out. Oh and I'm not going to be here for dinner tonight," She says, looking up at Elena. Elena and I smile.

"Oooh, so you're actually going out with Logan." Elena smiles, and Jenna rolls her eyes.

"If you mean torture him, then yes," Jenna says. "Have you heard from Stefan?" I turn to look at Elena as well, and she scowls. I do not want to imagine what she wants to do to Stefan.

"Not since he's left that very vague message," She says, and rolls her eyes.

"Are you going to call him?" Jenna asks, and Elena frowns.

"I'm not going to call him," She says. Jenna nods, regarding Elena carefully.

"Are you fine with that?" Jenna asks cautiously and Elena scowls.

"No, I'm not fine with it," She snaps angrily, and I raise an eyebrow. "But I'm not going to be one of those girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy." Jenna's eyes are wide at her outburst.

"Okay then," Jenna concedes, and Jenna and I exchange looks.

"I'm fine," She addresses both of us and marches off, eating.

I turn to Jenna, eyes wide. "Well then," I say cheerily and Jenna gives me a serious look.

"You heard her, Ivy, don't bring him up anymore, yeah?" She tells me and I nod.

"We'll see about that."

* * *

"Hey Stef, heard you're not calling Elena," I chirp, walking beside the vampire. He looks at me, before rolling his eyes.

"What do you want me to say, Ivy?" He asks. "'Oh, sorry, I was busy torturing my brother.'"

I glance around me; the other students aren't paying us any attention. For once I'm glad that we're in high school surrounded by self-obsessed people. With nothing entertaining happening, what else can we do other than obsess over ourselves, and other people's business?

"Are you ever going to tell her about vampires?" I ask him, raising an eyebrow.

He clenches his jaw, looking away. "I'm not planning on it."

I shrug. "Then you have a lot of lying to do, because she's not impressed." We're nearing the door, but he cuts away from me, so I walk over to Bonnie and Elena, who're watching Caroline.

"I want in-your-face sexy," Caroline says, and laughs. "It's a fundraiser, for god's sake."

"Unbelievable," Elena says, watching Caroline as she saunters around school with her little posse, handing out the 'sexy suds' flyer. She's changed since Damon, and for the worse. "It's like nothing happened." Elena has a disbelieving and slightly disgusted look on her face.

"She's in denial," Bonnie says, in an almost bored tone of voice.

"Hey," Stefan suddenly appears, approaching Elena. I see Bonnie's judgmental look.

"Let's go Bonbon," I say, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her away. She looks at me thankfully and I raise an eyebrow. "Why do you hate him so much?" Bonnie's silent.

"I don't know, he gives me a bad vibe," Bonnie defends herself, and I stop, crossing my arms. She relents. "Okay, fine, he's weird, and my 'witchy vibes' are telling me he's trouble."

My eyes light up. "So you're a witch?" I gasp, and her gaze darts around.

"About that."

* * *

"So, Elena and Stefan, huh?" Kara smiles at me, and I smirk.

"Do you have to ask? You probably knew about it before I did," I tease, and Kara rolls her eyes.

"Oh, ha ha, I don't gossip _that_ much," She pouts, and Jess snorts.

"Yeah, okay," Jess drawls, and Kara glares at both of us.

"I hate you guys," She whines, and I laugh, but quickly stop. I watch as Elena walks into the cafeteria, walking along with Stefan. I follow with my eyes as they walk over to a separate table, still talking. Elena seems to be angry, her lips moving a mile a minute as her slender fingers rip into the bread she has in her hands. As she talks, she rips the bread faster, and into tinier pieces, so I know she's pissed. Stefan's lips are pursed, only opening his mouth once or twice to give short answers.

"What are you looking at?" Jess asks me, glancing towards Elena and Stefan. " _Oh_."

"They don't look too happy," Kara chirps, lighting up with curiousity. I elbow her, and she rolls her eyes. "Oh come on, I'm not going to gossip, she's your sister."

"Exactly," I tell her warningly, but she rolls her eyes at me. Finally, the bell rings, and we go our separate ways. I'm gathering up my stuff when Bonnie comes walking over.

"Hey, so apparently Elena's going to the Grill with Stefan tonight," Bonnie whispers, and I turn to look at her, eyes wide. "Yeah, she wants to give him another chance."

"Bullshit, she was literally ranting about him this morning," I say, but Bonnie only shrugs.

"I'm just saying what I heard," She tells me, and I glance over at the couple. They indeed look to be getting over whatever disagreement they had earlier, so I don't doubt Bonnie's right.

"Interesting."

* * *

"Ivy."

I look up from my book as Jeremy walks into my room. "Yes?"

"Stefan's downstairs," He tells me, and I raise an eyebrow. "I let him in to surprise Elena."

I smile. "Really? Aw, that's so cute!" I gush, and he rolls his eyes.

"Don't spoil it," He warns me, and I roll my eyes. He just walks away, going to Elena's room. I get up, following. I was never one to miss a cute, romantic moment. "Are you okay?" Jeremy asks Elena as she lies on her bed, holding her teddy bear. I grin at him, but he shushes me.

"Is Vicki in there?" Elena sighs, and Jeremy chuckles.

"Don't answer a question with another question," He smirks. "Maybe. What's wrong with you?"

She sighs again. "I'm miserable," She huffs. Jeremy chuckles softly.

"Well, you should go get something to eat," He tells her, and I look over at him. We exchange a smirk, before going away, allowing her to go down on her own time. I sit down on my bed, watching her door, waiting for her to leave so I can go to see the romance.

Finally, she walks out, and makes her way downstairs. I follow, and grin stupidly as I see her walk into the kitchen. I can't help but aw over how cute it was for Jeremy to help Stefan do this.

"Looks like you two made up," I smile as I watch Stefan and Elena cook. Elena exchanges a look with Stefan, smiling blissfully. Her happiness is infectious, and I feel myself smiling along with her.

"Yeah," She answers, still looking at Stefan. "We did." I walk over to her.

"I'm happy for you, Lena," I whisper to her as Stefan's looking in the fridge. She glances over at him, sighing, before looking back over at me.

"I am too," She says, and I walk away, letting the lovebirds continue with their romance.

* * *

I sit in the Mystic Grill as I people watch. In the corner by the pool table is a young couple, probably on their first date. The girl has such a huge grin on her face, she reminds me of a child when they find the presents that Santa has left. The boy is eyeing her as well, but not in a gross way, more in a mushy romantic way. It makes me want to puke rainbows and ride off into the sunset riding a Pegasus-Unicorn half-breed.

I smile into my hot chocolate, before glancing over at the bar. There's a man sitting there, nursing his fourth drink, from what I've counted, and he's flagging down the bartender. The bartender sneakily trades the man's keys for the drink, and the man does so willingly. He doesn't look very good, with his blank eyes and stark veins. I shake my head pityingly for him before glancing out the door. I sit up when I see Elena walk by.

I walk out the door. "Lena? Where're you going?" I ask, and she startles, putting a hand over her chest.

"Ivy!" She hisses. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I pat her on the back in comfort. She glares.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the carwash?" I ask her, and she bites her lip.

"I have to…do something," Elena says, and I snort.

"Well, that isn't vague at all." I stare at her, but she blinks. "So, what are you doing?"

Elene sighs again. "Tiki's grandpa came up to me today, saying that he saw Stefan in 1953."

I froze, thinking about vampires. "Okay," I say slowly. "What are you going to do about it?"

"There was a murder that year, and I'm going to see if I can find it."

I simply nod, wishing Elena good luck, before I walk away, taking my phone out to text Stefan.

Me: _Elena on to you_

Stefan: _What, about vampires?_

Me: _Yes…Spoke to Tiki's grandpa, told her he saw you in 1953…What happened?_

Stefan: _Damon killed someone_

Me: _She'll figure it out…and if she comes, you must tell her_

There's a while until he responds, but when he does, I sigh in relief.

Stefan: _Okay_

* * *

I sit in my room when I hear someone walking in Jeremy's room. I get up slowly, peeking into my brother's room, and I see Logan Fell taking something from under Jeremy's desk. I narrow my eyes, trying to see what he took and I could only make out something round.

Before I can dwell on it, he's turning around, and making sure I avoid the squeaky floor board, I dash to my room, closing my door as he closes Jeremy's. But just as I'm about to put my earbuds back in, I see Elena walking to the car. I sit up slowly, before sneaking into her bedroom, and opening her diary.

 _Dear Diary, I am not a believer. People are born, they grow old, and then they die. That's the world we live in. How can I deny what's right in front of me? Someone who never grows old, never gets hurt. Someone who changes in ways that can't be explained. Girls bitten, bodies drained of blood._

I close her diary abruptly, not wanting to read anymore, already knowing that she has enough evidence to sense something's seriously off about Stefan.

I walk down the stairs, throwing a quick glance to see Jenna still talking with Logan, before I sneak out the front door. I walk towards the benches in the square, where I usually go sit when I need to think.

"What are you doing out here all alone?"

I jump at least ten feet into the air, and stumble away from the person beside me. "You," I hiss.

Katherine smirks. "Yes. Me," She says. Her eyes start to change and I see her fangs. "Missed me?"

"Screw you," I spit, and she raises an eyebrow.

"You look a lot like her," Katherine muses, looking me over. "But you act nothing like her."

I stare at her skeptically. "Am I supposed to take offence from that?"

Katherine shrugged. "Interpret it as you may. But their sister was kind and caring, compassionate."

"You expect compassion from me, for you?" I snort, and Katherine's eyes narrow.

"Hardly. So I hope you're not surprised when you get none from me," She sniffs, and I chuckle.

"I'm not losing sleep over it, Kitty-Kat," I purr, and she bares her teeth at me.

"Oh, you will be, once I get invited in." She gives me a sinister smile. "You'll be sleeping, vulnerable and unaware, and I could be in your house, killing you before you realize it."

Before I can say anything, Katherine's gone, and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. I stand up, glancing around me carefully, before I make my way back down the road, not exactly towards home, but away from the bench that has recently become unsafe. I follow the path my feet want me to go down, and I inhale sharply when I realize I went towards the Salvatore boarding house.

"Your sister's going to arrive soon," Adaline informs me, and I huff. I should've known that she led me here.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I hiss at her, and she gives me a baleful look.

"I don't know, Ivy, think of something before she hates Stefan forever," Adaline snaps, and I glare at her.

"Why would she hate him?" I ask, and Adaline gives me a bemused frown.

"She knows he's a vampire," Adaline informs me and I whistle.

"Well then, Elena and her oh so morally superior self will ignore Stefan's attempts of getting her to listen." I laugh, and Adaline shoots me a shriveling look. Before we can do anything, Elena comes pulling up to the Salvatore house, and I stop walking, watching as she gets out.

"You should want to help him with her, Ivy," Adaline sniffs, and I roll my eyes.

"Stefan needs to tell her. Elena bases everything on trust, and if she can't trust him, or believes she can't trust him, she won't try to have a relationship with him," I say, and walk towards Elena's car.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to wait for her here," I say, before smiling mischeviously. "Maybe she'll think I'm a vampire, waiting for her. Ooh, I know, I'll duck down, and when she's driving, I'll sit up so she'll see me in the mirror."

Adaline rolls her eyes. "That's cruel."

"It's fun," I correct. "Besides, what could go wrong?"


End file.
